Blush and Smile
by periodic-prose
Summary: Athrun, Cagalli, Lacus and Kira are normal teenagers in university, and Cagalli's a new student. Details inside. Athrun and Cagalli, Kira and Lacus so far. Random cameos from other characters as well.
1. Getting Lost

**This is just sort of a possibility of what might happen, if Athrun, Cagalli, Lacus and Kira were just normal teenagers, with no political duties or responsibilities. Kira and Lacus already know each other, and Cagalli and Kira are siblings. The rest is explained in the story. Italics illustrate thought.**

**Obviously, I don't own the characters, Gundam SEED Destiny or Gundam SEED.**

* * *

Cagalli stared at the piece of paper in her right hand, frowning with an eyebrow slightly raised. Turning it slightly, she looked at a nearby clock. 

"Agh! Forget it" She exclaimed, collapsing onto a nearby bench. _Great... my first day and I'm already 15 minutes late for my first class and have no idea where I am..._

She glanced at the map on the piece of paper. Crumpling it up into a ball, she tossed it the general direction of a wastebasket. Hitting the rim, it bounced off and landed back onto the ground.

She sighed. _"Even better..."_ Dragging herself off the bench to pick up the balled up map, she bent down to pick it up, only to hear a slight chuckle. Tilting her head up slightly, she saw a pair of legs standing in front of her.

Immediately straightening herself, she found what appeared to be a good natured blue haired young man standing in front of her. In one hand, he held a briefcase. The other was inside the pocket of a dark grey jacket, which he wore around a simple black shirt. "Professor or something I guess..." She thought to herself. He removed his hand from his pocket, bent down and picked up the map. After uncrumpling it, he gave a light smile.

"Having trouble?" He spoke in a gentler voice then she would have imagined, but his tone of amusement still bothered her.

"No, I like throwing maps at trash cans. It's a hobby of mine." She retorted, only to receive another amused chuckle. She glared at him.

"Well, if I might make a suggestion, you have the wrong map. This is for the east campus. You're at west." He gave her a sympathetic smile.

"What! Oh Damn..." Cagalli muttered, quickly removing her folded schedule from the pocket of her tan jacket. "Well the where the hell-..." She paused, suddenly aware of his presence. Or rather, aware of the fact that he was hovering just above her. She peered at his through narrowed eyes. "Do you mind?"

"Hm? Oh, sorry. But I do have good news. You're at the right campus." He replied, taking a few steps back. "Want me to show you where your class is?" He offered.

Cagalli studied him. He didn't look like he was trying anything, and she really did have to get to class. "Sure." She shrugged.

He gestured to the left. "It's not too far. You were going in the right... general direction."

"Eh... don't flatter me. I was hopelessly lost." She acknowledged. He chuckled again.

"Alright." He shrugged. "So how is it you've come to be at this fine institution?" He asked with a light tone.

"I just moved here, but my brother's been here for a year."

"This university? Do you live with him?"

"Yes and No. He lives in a dorm. I live in an apartment that's not terribly far from here."

He nodded. "Wait, let me take a look at your schedule again? Theoretical Physics huh? What's your major?"

"Undeclared. I'm kinda just taking whatever my dad signed me up for" She sighed. He nodded lightly.

"Well you have a good professor. He's a nice guy. Interesting too, so don't worry about falling asleep in class" He said, giving her a quick glance. "It's right here." He gestured towards a room with his free hand.

"Oh.. well thanks for getting me here." She smiled, as her opened the door for her.

"Mr. Zala! What a surprise! What can I do for you?" The professor spoke up from inside the room. The young man let out a good natured laugh.

"Just delivering a lost student"

"Oh great! Well what are you waiting for, come in!" Cagalli smiled. The professor seemed interesting alright. Stepping in, she turned around to say good-bye to her guide, but he had already left. Taking a quick look around, Cagalli found a seat and settled into class.

* * *

Kira glanced at his watch. Taking another sip of his drink he sighed and looked out the window. _"I know I got the time right. I wonder what's keeping her_..." However his thoughts were answered when Lacus entered the cafe, looking around. Kira waved her over and ordered her a drink. 

"Hey, so what's this thing that you needed to talk to me about so urgently?" She asked, sitting down as her pulled out her chair for her.

"Our project for Journalism. I know it's not due for a while, but see, the time when it's due. I have like 8 other projects and tests due in my other classes. So would it be too much trouble for you if we were to um, work on this and finish it up a bit sooner?"

"No not at all. I've got a pretty easy semester so anything's fine with me." She answered, giving him a genuine smile.

"Thanks a bunch. So, wanna start?" Kira asked anxiously.

"Eh? Now?" she seemed surprised. Kira nodded.

"The sooner the better. Maybe not exactly in here... we can go to a park or something." He offered. Then a thought crossed him mind. "Unless you have other plans, I mean, do you have a date or something?..." He trailed off.

"Huh? Oh no! I just wasn't expecting... I don't have any... We can start now" She stammered. Both of them rose out of their chairs and Kira reached for his wallet.

"No no, I can pay for it. It's fine, I have my bag." Lacus protested.

"It's fine. Come on Lacus, it's a $2 drink."

"$2.70, and that's the not the point."

"Lacus, come on." Kira chuckled. Lacus blinked, then considered it for a moment.

"Fine, but only if I get to pay for your drink next time."

"Wha- Lacus!" Kira exclaimed.

"See? You think it's weird too." She said, reaching over to take the bill. Kira's hand stopped her and tried to take it out of her hand. After struggling for a few moments, they paused and looked down then looked at each other. A rouge tint crept up on their faces.

"Sorry!" Kira cried out, turning away quickly and taking his hand off of hers. "I'll uh... I'll go pay. You go ahead." He said, taking a step towards the cashier. Lacus nodded.

A few minutes later, he walked out of the cafe, taking a quick look around. Stopping her about a block away, he jogged up to her. They'd both stopped blushing as Kira slowed his pace to match hers. Lacus looked up at him and smiled. He smiled back at her. Taking their eyes off each other, they crossed the street and entered a nearby park, then continued walking side by side.

* * *

Cagalli stepped out of her class. She certainly didn't fall asleep, but she certainly didn't understand a word of what he'd said either. Cursing silently, she took a look around. Technically, she was done with classes for the day. At the same time, she was tempted to look around the school and maybe check out the cafeteria. But she'd barely walked past the end of the hall before she found herself, yes, once more, completely lost. 

"What kind of a university IS this! It's like a damn maze!" She continued grumbling to herself and looking around until she heard more familiar chuckling.

"My, my, don't we get lost easily?"

Spinning around abruptly, she found herself facing the same young man from the morning.

"It's not my fault your school's harder to navigate then the Pacific Ocean.

He smiled, "Well at least this time you don't have the wrong map. where are you going?"

"Home!" She cried, abandoning her prior plan of exploring the school. After getting lost twice, she decided she'd seen enough of the school.

He blinked at her sudden outburst. "Huh? Well I can't help you find your way there." He grinned.

Cagalli blushed slightly. "No! I need to find an exit..." She explained, averting her eyes from him, even though she could still feel his gaze upon her.

"Okay" He shrugged. He gestured for her to follow. Cagalli mumbled a thanks and followed him for about 5 minutes, making light conversation until she realized that they seemed to be moving further into the building.

"Hey! Where are we going?" She cried in a sudden outburst. He calmly pushed open a door and walked over to a secretary, asking for something. Moments later, the blushing secretary handed him a brochure of some sort. Walking back out, he handed it to Cagalli. Looking down, she read the words "Map of West Campus" Cagalli was caught between anger and embarrassment when his voice interrupted her thoughts.

"Because I might not always be around when you get lost." He smirked. Blushing furiously, she turned away.

"Umm... Thanks Mr. Zala..."

He stopped and turned to face her. "What?"

"Thanks!" She spoke a little louder, frustrated that he was teasing her even now.

"No, the last part."

"Mr. Zala?"

"Yeah, why did you call me that?"

"Because the professor..."

He had a look of confusion with just a hint of curiosity on his face. Finally breaking into his usual smile he spoke up.

"Don't, call me that. Athrun's fine."

"Eh?"

"You can just call me Athrun." He broke into an even wider grin.

"Huh? But isn't that a bit too..." She trailed off, suddenly becoming aware of the fact that were alone, in a corridor that was only the width of a door, and that he was a bit closer to her then she would have preferred. Her eyes widened and she felt her cheeks warming up again. "Uh.. s-so Where are we?" She stammered, targeting the floor with her eyes.

"Exit." He replied, gesturing towards the door that was to their left. Taking no notice of her blush, or their surroundings, he continued. "Anything else I can help you with, Ms..?"

"Cagalli!" She exclaimed. "Thanks a lot!" She broke into a run and sprinted out the door. He stood there for a moment, just staring at the door, before he felt himself smiling again.

"Hm... Haven't smiled this much in a while." Touching his chin lightly, he began walking out the door as well. _You're an interesting girl, Cagalli…_

* * *

Kira closed his notebook. "Well, I think that's enough for today. Sorry for dragging you out here." 

"Hm? Oh, it's not problem at all. When do you want to meet again?" Lacus smiled.

"Uh, day after tomorrow. Same place, same time. Sound alright to you?"

"Sure. I'll see you then." Lacus turned and began walking out of the park. Kira took a step towards her and paused. Then called out her name. Startled, Lacus stopped and turned as well. "Something wrong?"

"The weather might not be too great. Uh, maybe we should plan to go somewhere else? Indoors?" He shrugged. Lacus laughed.

"I already told you that anything's fine with me. So, what'll it be?"

"We can work at my dorm or something, and then later if you get hungry we could go out to get something to eat?" He offered.

Lacus paused. "Kira, are you asking me out?"

Kira looked up. "Only if you want me to." He replied, breaking into a slight grin. She laughed a bit more and nodded.

"Sure, that sounds fine too."

* * *

Cagalli didn't stop running until she was halfway to her apartment, which usually took her almost an hour to get back to. Leaning against a store window, she stopped to catch her breath. 

"Oh my g-... What WAS that?...Dammit..." She wondered. The blush was mainly gone, but she still felt it just a little. Suddenly her eyes snapped fully open. "Wait a minute... Did I give him my FIRST NAME!"

And suddenly several pedestrians were frightened off the sidewalk by the sound of a frustrated scream.

* * *

**Well, that's it. So far, Cagalli thinks that Athrun is a professor, Athrun can't seem to stop smiling, Kira's getting bolder and Lacus' enjoying the attention. **

**Not my first fic, but my first SEED/GSD one, AND the first fic I've even posted up. Pretty spur of the moment... I wrote this about a month ago at about 3am. Strangely enough, I have this, which is the beginning, and the end done (which isn't here), but nothing in-between, so I'm in the process of filling it out. If I give up, then I'll just upload the end, but until then I'm hoping to take this chapter by chapter. **

**Sorry about how Kira and Lacus didn't have an introduction, but in case you can't tell by sheer content, this fic is Athrun and Cagalli centric, since I'm more of an Athrun and Cagalli fan. **

**Finally, I'm trying to keep these guys as in-character as possible. If you disagree, speak up! **

**Questions? Comments? Review and tell me what you think.**


	2. Mixups and Mayhem

**Wow, thank you to all the reviewers. Just so there's no confusion, I'll try to update once a week. I'll get on with the story right now and address questions and additional comments at the end, as well as hand out my thank you's. Here's just a quick note though, in this story there is no such thing as a coordinator or a natural. Everyone's just like everyone else. **

_Italics_** are thoughts, **underlining** is for emphasis and bold is my own talking. **

* * *

Cagalli got off the bus and walked down the street. After arguing with Kira for an hour, over whether or not he should take her shopping for new textbooks, he'd finally given in and let her go herself. The truth was his dorm and classes were all on the other side of the city, making it a half hour drive away from her, easily. 

_"He's a busy guy, and I can take care of myself."_ She smiled to herself. "And he's a great brother too... he deserves a break." Walking into the bookstore, she showed her booklist to an employee. After being directed to the section reserved for textbooks, she walked over there alone.

_"Well at least I can't get lost here..."_ She chuckled to herself. Then the image of a certain chuckling, blue haired young man came to mind. Catching herself, she stopped abruptly.

After her first day, she'd gotten home and immediately took the liberty of memorizing the map of campus he'd given her, to make sure that she wouldn't have to ask him for directions and that when she did run into him, she would immediately know which way to run. Kira also gave her a tour of the entire campus.

"All those precautions, and I have no idea why. I guess it's the way he makes me feel..." she muttered. She had run into him a few times at first, despite her efforts to avoid him, and each time she ended up blushing furiously and sprinting down a hallway. He seemed to have this presence. The way he smiled and looked at her already made her uneasy. The glares from random girls watching them talk doubled the feeling.

But she had gotten better at avoiding him and was now proud to say that after a month in the city, she'd managed to avoid him completely for the past two weeks. Displaying a proud smile, she couldn't help but wonder how much longer she could hold out. Her thoughts were interrupted as she arrived at the bookshelf, looked up and almost fainted.

"What the hell! These books are all FOUR inches thick! And I need to buy FIVE of them!"

* * *

Kira stood, arms crossed, hesitant and yet eager, facing... a door. He was right in front of Lacus' apartment, yet found difficulty in just, knocking. _"Raise the hand... that's it... now knock. Knock... KNOCK DAMMIT. AGH, forget it!"_

He plopped down in confused frustration, careful not to be too noisy. Looking around him, he couldn't figure out what the problem was. He'd come to her apartment before to work on the project, why on earth was today different?

Then again, lately he'd felt increasingly anxious to confront Lacus. At the same time, every time she looked at him, he froze up. He felt comfortable with her, just not with confessing to her. How on earth do you tell a girl that for some odd reason, you don't just think of her as a friend anymore? How do you tell her that you feel sad, not when she's not with you, but when she's just not looking at you? He could talk to her about anything!

Just...

not...

THIS.

He buried his head into the palms of his hand with frustration. He planned to tell her today, had said the same this today morning that he had said for the past month _"Today's the day. I won't cop out. I'll tell her for sure..." _Looking up at the light on the ceiling he frowned.

"Okay... maybe not today. Not ready. Still need... more time." Taking a deep breath, he got up and turned to knock on the door.

_"Because, she might not feel the same way..."_

* * *

Athrun had just parked convertible when a certain blond haired girl carrying what appeared to be an enormous stack of books caught his eye. _"It's been a while since I've seen her..."_ He thought, feeling a smile tug at the corners of his mouth. 

He used to be able to see her at least once a day, but she seemed to have disappeared for the past two weeks. Just the sight of her now was able to make amuse him. She was starting to walk his way, but the stack of books hindered her vision, and she appeared to be stumbling a bit. Getting out of his car, he approached her.

"Need a hand?" He offered. Cagalli spun around and almost dropped her books. He reached forward and steadied the pile. "Long time no see."

"Mmhmm..." Cagalli mumbled, eyes locked onto her books. Judging by the sound of his voice, if she were to look up she'd probably find herself about an inch away from his face.

"Haven't seen you in a while. Haven't been getting lost have you?" He teased. But the physical distance, or rather lack of it, between them had him almost blushing too. In all honesty he had no idea what had come over him. He usually wasn't this forward, but something about her allowed him to be. Standing up straight, he took a step back and waited for a response.

Cagalli shook her head lightly. "Your map's done wonders for me." She replied. He laughed casually.

"Is that it? You aren't still using that map are you?" He joked.

"Huh? Oh no! I stopped a while ago. But I mean, for that first bit yeah I had to use it. Uh... yeah..." She trailed off. Her eyes were wandering onto the ground again, and she kept shifting her weight from side to side nervously. Feeling the awkward pause, Athrun spoke once more.

"Walking home?" He asked. She nodded again. Athrun took the top three books from her stack.

"These are pretty heavy you know. Hop in, I'll give you a lift."

Cagalli dropped her books.

"Wha- What!" she exclaimed.

"Hey, don't damage them before you've even used them!" He laughed, tossing the three he was holding into the back seat of his car, then reaching over for the ones she'd dropped. Cagalli stood there, stunned.

"Care to repeat that?" She managed to get out. He tossed the last two books into the back, walked back towards her, stood smack in front of her, then looked right at her.

"I'll. Give. You. A. Lift. You know, home. So you don't have to carry those." He grinned. _"Yeah, she's definately an interesting girl..."_ He walked over to unlock the passenger side door. Cagalli shook herself out of her frozen state and jogged over to him. Placing her hand on the door to stop him from opening it, she turned towards him.

"Hey, hold on. I mean, it's nice of you to offer, but don't you think that... I dunno. I mean, you know." She struggled for words awkwardly. _"Dammit, usually a guy would have a black eye and trouble walking if he were this cocky around me. Why do I keep blushing?"_

Athrun blinked in mild confusion. "No, I don't. I don't see you for two weeks, I finally see you again, and you want to kill yourself carrying textbooks. Are you feeling okay?" He questioned. _"Why am I forcing myself on her? I should just let her go. What am I doing?" _Suddenly, he realized that he was overlooking something. "_Oh no_... Hey, Cagalli. Are you um... seeing, someone?" He asked. Now it was his turn to blush.

"What? Uh..." She was taken aback. _"Where did that come from?"_ she wondered. "No, I'm not. But still-" She protested.

Athrun let out the breath he'd been holding. For some reason he'd felt like his life was on the line with that question. "Well then what's the problem? Hop in." He laughed, nonchalantly, swinging open the door for her.

"The problem, is that I don't think it's entirely appropriate for someone your age to be this friendly to someone my age! What are you, some sicko!" She blurted out. Immediately she clapped her hands around her mouth and braced herself. What she said was true, in fact, it had been bugging her this whole time. But something about him made her nervous, speaking so upfront.

Athrun stopped and turned slowly. "Care to repeat that?" He frowned.

Cagalli took a step back. "I think you heard me well enough..." She said in a tone, braver then how she felt. Athrun walked toward her, until their faces were inches apart. He looked directly into her eyes, seriously.

"How old are you?" He asked, realizing that he'd never known that.

"Ni-nineteen." She stammered, alarmed by his sudden actions. He blinked suddenly and stepped back, leaning against his car, a slight frown still on his face.

"What the... What age difference are you talking about? I'm nineteen too." He said, looking up and turning to face her with a look of utter confusion.

"Huh? You-you're nineteen? A little young to be a professor..." She returned his look. However, as soon as the words left her mouth he burst into laughter.

"Professor! What ARE you talking about? I'm a student!" He explained, after calming down a bit.

"Student! But... the professor seemed to know you so well!" She seemed unable to control the words coming out of her mouth.

"I was a summer research student, so I still work with him now." He explained. Cagalli stared in amazement, allowing herself to absorb everything she'd just heard. First, he's only 19. Then he's not a professor...

"Wait! Then... are you seeing, anyone?" She asked, desperate to understand what was happening. He shook his head lightly, still laughing slightly. "Oh geez, well you should have told me sooner!" She cried out, exasperated. She was too relieved to be embarrassed about her mistake. "Sure, I'd love a ride home. I live on Cypress." She smiled and walked towards the seat. After closing her door he slid in front of the wheel and began backing out of the parking lot.

"Well I'm glad we cleared that up. Is that why you've been avoiding me?" He asked, still unable to believe how long this girl had been under the wrong impression.

"More or less." She shrugged, choosing to ignore the fact that she still felt uneasy around him, and still felt like she was going to blush whenever he looked at her. He smiled, watching how relaxed she seemed to be now, with her head propped up against her hand, her elbow leaning on car door. Then a thought crossed his mind.

"Hold on. How old did you think I was?" He raised an eyebrow. Cagalli raised her head, took a good look at him and found his staring at her intently. Her cheeks lit up instantly and she swallowed hard.

"We'll talk about that some other time" She answered turning her head to face the window again.

* * *

Lacus opened her door and smiled. They were pretty much finished what was supposed to be a two month project, but Kira still kept rushing to finish. 

"Alright, come on in. I think that we can finish it all up today." She said, stepping back to let him inside. Kira immediately rushed over and dumped the mountain of materials onto the couch.

"Thanks.. So, shall we get started?" He offered.

"So soon? Have you had anything to eat?" Lacus was still amused at how rushed he seemed to be.

"Uh, yeah well kinda. We can go eat later." Kira shrugged.

"Kinda? Come on, I'll make you a sandwich or something." Lacus frowned slightly and started for the kitchen. He blinked and followed her in.

"It's fine really. I'm fine. I mean..."

"Are you that eager to start working?" Lacus looked at him.

"Huh? Oh no, but I don't want to trouble you..." He trailed off and looked around.

Lacus gave him another smile. "How many times do I have to tell you that you don't trouble me? Even if you're trying to finish this project in half the time." She laughed. "Honestly Kira, I can't understand why you keep rushing." Kira looked at her and studied her face for a moment, before taking a deep breath.

"Maybe... I'm just trying to find excuses to spend time with you." He shrugged, almost blushing. Lacus stopped and turned slowly to face him.

"If you want to spend time, you don't need an excuse." She noted, handing him a plate.

"Oh... Well, it's nice hearing that." He said, pausing slightly after the first two words. They gave each other another look, then smiled and looked away.

* * *

"It's right here." Cagalli noted. Athrun stopped the car and suddenly just sat there. Though he had wanted to just drop it, it was still bugging him. Cagalli shifted nervously in her seat. _"Why isn't he letting me go. Does he want to talk about something? Oh damn, there goes that blush. Spit it out man!"_ She took a quick look at him, and noticed that he appeared to be frowning. 

"Really now…" He started. "How old did you think I was, for you to think that you had to call me 'Mr. Zala'?" Cagalli was taken aback, then thought about it and mumbled something. "Little louder please." He chuckled.

"Twenty... something. Twenty-nine maybe?"

"TWENTY-NINE! I don't look that old do I?"

"I don't know! You looked really professional!" She protested.

"But twenty-nine? Aw man... I'm not aging that quickly am I?" He sighed. People had often thought he was older, due to either his maturity or just his overall manner. But twenty-nine!

He resting his left arm on the wheel, proceeding to let his head fall onto it. Leaning towards him, she couldn't help but feel incredibly guilty. "Hey, I was just being stupid. I mean, you're not-" He suddenly looked up at her.

"You need a hand with those?" he asked, gesturing towards the backseat. Cagalli suddenly froze, looking at his face for a moment. She sat there for a moment, studying how calm and gentle features still grazed the mature face that she had once seen, until his face seemed to change a little.

_"Why is she staring at me?"_ He wondered... "Do you?" He asked again.

Startled, her gaze snapped. _"Did he notice my staring?.. What the hell? What am I saying! I wasn't staring!." _Blushing, she quickly shook her head and smiled. "You don't… need help?" He blinked.

"No, I mean. Well no, I don't need a hand, and you don't look twenty-nine."

"Well that's good to hear. But you still thought I was at first, so I dunno. You're probably just taking pity on me." He grinned. She grabbed her books and gave him a last smile.

"Nope. You're definitely not twenty-nine." Opening the door, she waved good-bye and watched him drive away. Even after his car had disappeared from sight she stood there for a moment longer. _"Athrun Zala… Just what kind of a guy are you?..."_

* * *

**Geez, another long update. I'm not sure whether I'll be keeping each chapter this long, but I tend to go on and on, so chapter length should be fairly consistent. **

**First of all, a big thank you to all who reviewed (HimeHikari, GATX-105B, asga, Genny-chan, des, stuntsheep, jenniferseedlover, MyouseiSeed, dark griffin, mariad, animemistress and koyou) Also, a kind thank you those who may not have reviewed, but still read. Though reviews are loved, thanks for reading anyways. **

**Just to answer some general questions:**

**There will we character development later on. Athrun's is coming next chapter, but there really isn't much. I tried to remove all aspects of who they are, in both social and political standing. All four became average people, living commonly. Then I just tried to figure out what would happen based on character. I figured, Athrun's more of the silent type that keeps to himself so he might be well-liked but still relatively reserved. So that's a part of it. There's a lot more on him in the next chapter though, so I won't say too much now.**

**As for Cagalli and Kira's living arrangements, because Cagalli transferred a year after Kira, Kira had already made living arrangements and was living in a dorm. Dorms are separated by gender (well, at least here they are…), so there was no possible way for Cagalli to live with Kira, hence she just got her own apartment. **

**Gah, I feel like I've been rushing Kira and Lacus. Just as a slight spoiler, they will end up together before Athrun and Cagalli do, since I feel like they are able to be more upfront with their feelings, and of course, in this story they have known each other longer. **

**Any more** **questions? Comments? Review and tell me what you think.**


	3. Beach Fun for Four

**Wow, more people reviewed! Thank you everyone! As usual, I'll continue with my gibberish and stream of thanks at the end, since some people might not want to read that. Heh… (Does anyone actually read that part?...)**

**Until then, as a huge thanks to all the readers and reviewers, here's to the longest chapter I've written thus far. Ten pages of pure story for your reading pleasure. **

* * *

Cagalli walked down the street, dressed casually in a t-shirt and pants. Strolling into a cafe she was able to identify Kira rather quickly and called out to him.

Kira looked up. "Hey!"

He waved back, and then launched quickly into an explanation. "Well we don't have a whole lot of time so I'll make this quick. I just handed in my journalism project today, so... My schedule's pretty free. I know it's been a long time since you've arrived here but I've been so busy that I haven't really seen you." He paused and ran his hair with his left hand. "So even though I'm sure you know the city already, I want to have that day with you that I promised about a month ago." Cagalli laughed at her brother's logic.

"Kira, it's no big deal. I mean, as much as I want to spend time with you too, don't sweat it."

Kira grinned. "Well let's see... you came in the spring and now it's summer. So... I'm assuming you haven't been to the beach yet?"

Cagalli blinked. "Huh? Uh well no. But you know I've never been one for the beach..."

Kira shrugged off her feeble protest. "You should go at least once. It'll be fine. Bring someone if you want. I will."

Cagalli paused. "Really? Well there's this one girl... I just met her a week or two ago but she's really nice. Mind if I?..."

"Sure no problem" Kira quipped. "Uh, well I guess I better tell you too. Um, a friend of mine from my Advanced Genetics class. He coops himself up a lot, so I thought it'd be nice to drag him out. Hope you don't mind."

Cagalli shrugged "Of course not. I'd love to meet some of your friends. We'll meet in about an hour?"

Kira smiled "Alright. I'll come by your apartment to pick you up."

* * *

Back at her apartment, Cagalli was starting to rethink her earlier decision. Although she did want to spend some time with her brother, there was the issue of…the beach. She shuddered to herself. The beach: where women were expected to be scantily clad, wet, tanning or something to that effect. Not only was she not one to do any of that stuff, but hell, even if for same random once in a millennium occasion, she actually was willing to, she didn't have anything to do that stuff in.

Desperately glancing at the clock, she realized that after digging through her entire closet she had found literally nothing that remotely resembled beach clothes or a swimsuit... and she only had 10 minutes left. The closest she had come was a light green, white and grey horizontally striped tank top, and a towel. And there was no way she was wearing a towel. Hearing the familiar horn of her brother's car, she had no choice. Grabbing the tank top and towel, as well as the other random stuff for the beach she had stuffed into her bag, she ran out her apartment door.

* * *

Kira tapped the steering wheel impatiently. Glancing at his friend he gave him a lop-sided smile. "Sorry, I don't know what's keeping her. I'll go check." His friend gave him a light nod back and Kira hopped out of his car.

No sooner had he reached the door, did Cagalli open the door into his face and send him sprawling backwards. Kira put a hand on his forehead and rubbed it gently.

"Oh geez, sorry! Sorry!" Cagalli gave him a hand, after looking down and finding other brother on the ground and apparently, in pain. Kira looked at her and frowned.

"Isn't that exactly what you were wearing an hour ago?" He asked.

"Your point?"

"It's the beach..."

"I'LL CHANGE WHEN I GET THERE!" Cagalli cried, clearly frustrated. Kira guessed, rather accurately, what had happened.

"Didn't think you'd have anything. Well, maybe you can borrow something from your friend."

Cagalli paused. "Yeah, I already called her about that. She said she'd try to find something." Kira nodded and they started walking towards his car, when suddenly Cagalli dropped her bag.

"A-Athrun?..."

Athrun looked up at the sound of his name. "Cagalli?..."

Kira paused. "You guys know each other? Well this makes the introduction really easy." He grinned, grabbing Cagalli dropped bag and tossing it into the back seat. "All right, hop in." He pushed Cagalli lightly in the direction of the car. She stumbled a few steps forward.

"Uh, hey. Didn't know that you were Kira's sister." Athrun smiled giving her a light wave. Cagalli nodded slightly.

"Yeah, we don't really look alike or anything, so it's not the first thing that comes to mind."

"Cagalli, where does your friend live?" Kira asked, as he started the car.

"56 Foxmeadow street." Cagalli answered. Kira paused.

"Huh? Lacus?" Kira raised an eyebrow.

"Wha- You know Lacus!" The words tumbled out of Cagalli's mouth. Kira nodded.

"Yeah. She's just been my journalism partner for the past 2 months." Kira added. Athrun grinned as well.

"Well it's a small world after all. Lacus is a family friend of mine. I've known her ever since we were kids."

Cagalli leaned back into her chair. "Yeah... small world." She looked at Kira "And, even easier introductions."

* * *

Lacus hopped down the stairs of her apartment and blinked. "Huh? Kira? Athrun? What on earth?"

"It's a long story, so we'll skip the introductions and speed to the beach." Cagalli sighed, opening the door for Lacus. Lacus shrugged.

"Nice to see you guys." She smiled. Kira and Athrun nodded at her. They began making light conversation on how they had met each other, (Cagalli took the liberty of excluding her blunder on Athrun's age) and soon found themselves at the beach

Kira and Athrun went to set up the stuff while Lacus and Cagalli went to the change rooms to see what they could do about Cagalli. Lacus dug into her bag and pulled out a bathing suit, then handed it to Cagalli. "We're roughly the same size. It should fit." She smiled. Cagalli stared at the abomination as if it had sprouted radioactive mushrooms.

"Lacus... That's a two piece..." She mumbled. Lacus tilted her head.

"Yeah... so?"

"I don't wear that kind of stuff. I may as well wear underwear." Cagalli frowned. Lacus smiled again.

"Well what did you bring?... A tank top... hmm. Okay here." Digging into her bag, Lacus produced something that resembled a skirt. "They're shorts, but there's just this piece of cloth wrapped around, so it looks like a wrap. It's kind of short… it won't cover your knees, but better then nothing right?" Cagalli looked at them hesitantly, then disappeared into a changing room.

"How do they fit?" Lacus asked curiously after the shuffling from behind the curtain seemed to have subsided.

"Well, like you said. They're better then nothing..." Cagalli mumbled. "All right, no laughing."

"Of course not." Lacus encouraged. "Now let's see you." Cagalli stepped out and Lacus nodded approvingly.

"Yeah, that definitely works. So let's head back."

* * *

Kira and Athrun were carrying the last bits of beach paraphernalia that they had brought over to where they had set up. Specifically, Athrun was carrying two textbooks and Kira was carrying a volleyball.

"Athrun... It's the beach." Kira noted, with an amused expression. Athrun kept a forward gaze.

"Yeah, but I've got work. I don't know why I let you talk me into this in the first place. I'm so busy with-" He was interrupted by the sound of Cagalli's voice calling out to them.

"Hey, you guys hungry!"

Athrun turned in her direction and dropped one of his books. Cagalli's outfit seemed to accentuate her natural figure, the tank top falling loosely off her shoulders and just the top of the wrap clinging to her waist. The light material tumbled down her lower body and swayed into the wind. Kira stepped forward.

"Geez Lacus. You got her into a dress? Our mother would love you." He joked. Cagalli punched his arm.

"Get real. They're shorts with cloth wrapped around them." She explained.

"Ah, no miracles today huh?" Kira shrugged. Lacus laughed lightly. Cagalli looked at Athrun and grinned.

"And you tell ME not to drop books?" she teased. Flustered, Athrun picked up the scattered textbooks.

"It's the skirt… shorts… I wasn't expecting. Um… yeah. You look good."

Cagalli blushed slightly and wrapped her arms around herself self-consciously, then turned to Kira "Anyway, want to go get some food? What do you guys want?" She asked Athrun and Lacus.

"Just something to drink" Lacus shrugged. Athrun nodded, adding an ice cream to his order. Kira and Cagalli went to go buy the stuff, leaving Athrun and Lacus at the blanket.

* * *

After they were a considerable distance away, Kira began shooting glances back, as if checking on Athrun and Lacus. Cagalli rolled her eyes. "If you're worried about Lacus, just say so." Kira blushed.

"It's not like that. I just didn't know they knew each other..."

"Yeah well neither did I." Cagalli cut him off sharply.

"Eh? Hey, Cagalli do you have a thing for-?"

"No, I'm just saying." She insisted. Kira raised an eyebrow. Admitting defeat Cagalli continued. "All right, all right. At first maybe, I thought he was sort of good-looking. MAYBE... just... a little. But I know him more now and so it's just like... he's a friend. It was just weird, that's all. And the fact that I'm willing to tell you about this proves it!" she explained. Kira nodded.

"Well I'm not complaining. He's a great guy, A little nutty..." He trailed off.

"Huh? Why?" Cagalli was puzzled.

Kira stared at her in disbelief. "You don't know?"

Cagalli shook her head. Kira raised an eyebrow slightly in confusion. "Weird, I'd think since you've known each other for so long he would have told you himself. Or that you would have just heard by word of mouth."

He shrugged and continued, "Well, he pushes himself way too much. Taking as many classes as possible and the hardest ones at that. A perfectionist and an overachiever. I mean, he's built a reputation as an excellent student, and so maybe he does want to own up to that. After all, he's receiving quite a scholarship right now, and so he'd feel guilty if he didn't do something ridiculously impossible. Like he wouldn't deserve it..."

Kira paused, frowning as he seemed to think about it more and more. Cagalli listened intently, not really surprised. After all, this did sound like something Athrun would do. But it was still hard to hear... Her brother continued on, slightly eager to tell her what's been happening.

"But it's really serious sometimes. He's worked himself sick before, and I don't mean once or twice. It's practically common. He doesn't really get out much either. I mean for fun. He's socially active in the sense that he does stuff for school, as the university's student representative to international conferences or stuff like that. But that's not fun; it's just like more work. Yeah, that's basically it." He finished up.

Cagalli frowned. "I never knew any of that. Geez... he is a good guy though. So that's why he's taking so many sciences." Kira nodded.

"Yeah, the university is well known for the science and engineering department, so it's only natural that he'd bury himself with those." Cagalli nodded, and remained silent the rest of the way. Still submerged in her thoughts, she couldn't help but let her mind wander. Why didn't he tell her? And why would he do stuff like that anyways? Maybe he needed someone to knock some sense into him…Approaching the stand, she ceased her restless thoughts and they ordered their food.

"The fries'll take a little longer." The cashier explained.

"All right," Kira gathered up the food that was ready. "I'll head back with this stuff in case either of them are thirsty. Think you can carry the rest?" Kira asked, steady the tray of food.

"Sure." Cagalli said, waving off his concern. "It's just my order, and Athrun's drink." Kira nodded and started heading back.

* * *

When Kira arrived back at the blanket, he found Athrun and Lacus sitting idly and chatting: Athrun with an open book on his lap, and a pen in his hand, Lacus braiding her hair. Taking her drink from Kira, she graciously thanked him.

"Where's Cagalli?" Athrun asked, not looking up from his book.

"Waiting for the rest of her order." Kira explained, sitting down facing them. They continued their random conversation, until Athrun suddenly closed his book.

"It's been 20 minutes. I don't care if she ordered a deep fried fully-grown adult humpback whale, it wouldn't take this long. I'm going to check up on her." He spoke nonchalantly, his voice un-betraying the worry he felt. Placing his book down, he headed off in the direction of the stand.

Kira and Lacus looked at each other.

"Do you think he's overreacting?" Kira questioned.

"Not really." Lacus responded. Kira rose slowly and held out his hand. Lacus took and and pulled herself up. They began walking to the same rhythm, they feet sinking into the hot, dry sand. "It has been a long time." Lacus continued.

Kira shook his head lightly. "No, I mean, do you think he's overreacting... in terms of being Athrun. I've rarely seen him this... motivated, if that's the right word."

Lacus smiled. "Yeah, I think there might be something there..."

* * *

Athrun jogged towards the stand worriedly. Something was wrong. Cagalli was nowhere in sight. Soon he had gone all the way up to the stand and there was still no sign of her. He rushed over to the cashier and asked about her.

"That blond girl? Yeah, cute huh? I tried asking for her number, and-." Athrun interrupted his story with a deadly glare. The cashier swallowed hard. "She left a while ago, I'd say at least 15 minutes. Our fries don't take that long, man..." He frowned. Athrun looked down, his eyes deep in thought. What could have happened to her?

At that moment, Kira rushed over to the stand. "Athrun! Any sign of her?" Athrun shook his head. They stood there, contemplating what to do next, when caught Lacus' faint voice drifting in the wind, as she waved them over. They ran at full speed until they had caught up with her.

"What have you found out?" Athrun asked urgently.

"She's at the lifeguard station. They took her to a nurse."

"Who's 'they'?"

"The guys that knocked her out."

"WHAT!" Kira and Athrun both blurted out. Lacus kept running.

"Yeah I asked around. Apparently she was on her way back when she got hit in the head with a volleyball. She then fell back and was knocked out." Lacus explained, clearly distressed. Kira winced.

"That's gotta hurt." They rushed into the station and asked where she was, and were then led into the nurse's office. They found her lying down on a couch, sleeping peacefully with an ice pack on the back of her head as a pillow.

"You'll have to sign some forms" The nurse explained, "since we obviously can have her do it. Are you a family member?" She asked. Kira nodded and looked anxiously at Cagalli.

"She's fine" the nurse reassured. "Just a light bump. Don't let her work herself too hard for a while and she'll be up and at it in no time."

"Kira you can go ahead and fill out the forms with Lacus. I can stay with her." Athrun urged. Kira took a final look and Cagalli, then reluctantly left to take care of the paperwork.

* * *

Athrun knelt down on the floor beside Cagalli's resting head. "Hey." he spoke softly. He had no idea why he was talking to her even though she was unconscious, but then again maybe it was because she couldn't hear him, that he dared say these things. "I was so surprised to see you today. And happy. You're kind of different. I like that." He was about to continue when he saw her eyelids flutter and she opened her eyes slowly.

"A-Athrun?..." she asked, still squinting from the sudden light pouring into her bright eyes. All she could really see was blue hair, but then again, who else had blue hair?

"Yeah it's me." He smiled and nodded, gently moving the ice pack on her head. She groaned and tried to sit up, but he held her down with his other arm. "Nurse said to take it easy." She nodded feebly.

"Aw man, I must look awful. I would have clobbered those guys, but then the drink hit me too, so I tripped. Dammit…Tell me the truth. Did that damn volleyball give me a black eye?" She asked. He laughed and shook his head.

"You look fine." He couldn't help but smile until he was totally grinning. She raised an eyebrow.

"I want to talk to you about something" She started, once more trying to sit up and he once more tried to keep her down. "Agh, dammit Athrun just let me sit up!" She cried in frustration. He lifted his arm off her obediently and took a seat beside her on the couch to keep her steady.

"Athrun," She continued. I want to know why you didn't tell me. About your position in the university, all the stuff you're involved in, or why you're taking so many classes. And why don't you take better care of yourself! For the love of- there are people that care about you, and don't want to see you sick!" She began ranting, and Athrun was completely taken aback. He had no idea she even knew. _"Kira must have told her_..." he figured.

Athrun had intended to wait for Cagalli to take a breath before launching into his explanation. But she must have had the lung capacity of an opera singer or something, because quite honestly she didn't stop rambling about how worried she was for a good 5 minutes. Very touched, but slightly exasperated, he listened for a slight break in the torrent of words and began talking immediately. "Well... first of all, the latter question. I know. I don't like to be sick either but sometimes I just need to finish stuff. There's a lot of-"

"Pressure on you, I know! Kira told me! But no amount of pressure is worth risking your health over!" She blurted out. He became aware of how tightly she was grasping his arm. His face softened, touched by her concern. Looking at her he still couldn't help but shrug slightly though.

"I can handle it."

She sighed in frustration. "We'll work on that." He looked at her and smiled meekly.

"Sorry."

"It's fine." She looked away. "If you won't do it, then I guess I'll watch out for you." Athrun blinked, opened his mouth as if to speak, but couldn't think of anything. Closing it, he took a deep breath.

"Thank you. Very much. Now as for the first question, it's a long answer." Cagalli looked at him frustrated.

"I'm not going anywhere. So start talking."

He smiled. "All right, for starters, I'm not a naturally direct person. I don't open up to many people and I keep to myself. Some people admire me I guess, but it's just how I am. If a girl approaches me, I kind of get embarrassed. I mean, I've never really had time for that sort of thing. If it's just those regular normal girls I won't care at all. But when I'm actually opening up to a girl, or when a girl's being forward with me, I feel embarrassed. Basically I'm bad at dealing with forward girls, and being forward... especially with girls."

"But with you, it's different. I don't really get flustered." He paused, noting the seething glare she was shooting him. "Not to suggest you're not a girl!" he quickly added, holding his hands up defensively. He breathed a sigh of relief as her face returned to its normal proportions. Taking in some air, he continued.

"I think it's the idea that you didn't know who I was. That way, I just knew for sure that you were being normal with me, and that you weren't acting a certain way because of my reputation. You would have had to be acting based on the person you knew, not the person you had heard about. I think that's one reason."

"The second is...I don't really know." Athrun smiled and looked away. Cagalli fell silent and waited for him to continue, sensing he had more to say. He turned and look at her, then opening his mouth slowly he sighed.

"But somehow when I'm with you, I just seem to forget that stuff. I forget about what I'm supposed to be doing, and just do what I feel like." He gave her an honest look and smiled. "The first day I met you, when I showed you your class, I really shouldn't have interrupted the professor. And I was even late for class myself." Cagalli was speechless.

"Uh... well, sorry about that then." She mumbled. Athrun laughed.

"No, no. I like it. It's good to forget sometimes." He insisted. Giving her a loose hug he smiled. "It's a good thing." Cagalli blushed again, squirming slightly in her nervousness. They separated and Cagalli looked away. After 5 minutes she suddenly spoke.

"Oh yeah. I forgot. Sorry about your drink too. I probably spilled it when I fell..." She explained sheepishly. He blinked then broke into a wide grin.

"That, was the least of my concerns." He laughed, raising his hand to hold the ice-pack in place for her.

* * *

Outside Kira and Lacus were filling out release forms. "It's nothing serious, It's nothing serious..." Kira muttered under his breath. Lacus smiled at him and put a hand on his shoulder.

"You say it, but you're still worried. It's fine. You saw her."

"Yeah, but I can't imagine what could have happened. I'm supposed to be her brother, and look out for her! Instead I left her alone so she could get knocked out and-" he halted his babbling abruptly, as Lacus put her hand on top of his shaking one, and gently made him put the pen down. Then picking it up, she continued filling out the forms.

"I know that you're concerned. You have every right to be. However, as of right now, she's fine, and letting her see you this way will only make her more nervous. Right?" She spoke softly. Then turning her head to face him, she handed him the form. "There. All done."

Kira stared at her for a while, then taking the form, he handed it to the nurse. Slowly he turned towards here. _"How is it possible?... That someone like her exists?..."_ Taking her hand in his, he smiled gently. "Thank you...I guess we'll be heading back now." She looked at his hand, then looked up at him, and nodded.

* * *

Driving back, Kira stopped at a red light and turned around. He looked at Cagalli, who seemed to be nodding off. Suddenly, she slumped to the left and onto Athrun's shoulder. Startled, Athrun jerked his gaze from the window and looked at her, shaking her shoulder gently. Letting out an amusing sigh, he let her head rest there and turned to look out the window again with a slight smile on his face.

To Kira's left, on the passenger front side sat Lacus. She had long since fallen asleep, and her legs were propped up on the seat towards him. Her elbow rested against the open window as the wind picked up her and carried it, just before letting it fall onto her back. Kira smiled. "Maybe... soon. We'll see."

* * *

**So that's it… Now they all know each other and for the first time ever, have interacted as a group! What do you think? Like it? Hate it? Too OOC? **

**A huge thank you to all the readers! I can't begin to express how happy I am that people are enjoying this fic! Especially thank you to the reviewers: I love hearing from you guys! So to: animemistress419, asga, Satu-chan, stuntsheep, derally, mariad, koyou, HimeHikari, Kura52, xxlilvietgurlxx, Myouseiseed, RoGuE-WhItE-DrAgOn and SEEDSummoner. Thank you so much for sharing your opinions.**

**Quite honestly, when I first wrote this chapter, I almost completely wiped it out and started over. I really wasn't too happy with how it came out; It sounded much better when it was still just in my head. Didn't sound as clichéd, or rushed. **

**Also, sorry about the lack of suspense. I'm guessing that in the first section, it wasn't too difficult to guess who their "friends" were huh? **

**Also, sorry to any Athrun&Cagalli fans who thought they were already set in stone. Heh, I'm going to milk their relationship for all it's worth. (Joking! Joking! Sort of… XP) Fear not, in the end they will be together. It's just that they aren't the type to rush into a relationship, so I'm building a friendship right now. **

**For the Athrun fans and those were wondering about him: This chapter was for you guys. I know I said I'd remove them from social and political status, but Athrun's someone who would end up in the spotlight no matter what he did. He seems like that type of person. Intelligent but humble, good-natured, polite, etc. I guess in the series, you can attribute that to his upbringing, but I personally think that a part of him is just naturally like that. A guy that tries to take on too much, because he tries to convince himself that he can take it. **

**I've noticed that a lot of fics have songs stuck in them. In fact, it's been suggested to me that I try this… but really? To tell the honest to goodness truth I don't really like it very much. It seems to make the story too choppy, having to stop and read a line from a song every few lines, no matter how much the song fits. Also, my chapters are a bit too long to fit any song into them. **

**But for anyone who may so some odd reason be wondering what I do listen to, I posted up the song that I listened to while writing this on my profile. (Yes singular. I only listen to one song on repeat when I write, another one for editing, and a final one for when I'm uploading and doing final touchups. If I switch half-way I lose my train of thought. It's just this weird thing of mine…) To tell the truth, it really does seem to describe Athrun and Cagalli's relationship pretty well. Heh… **

**Okay, so until next week, please review! Tell me your thoughts and I guess that's it for now! I'll try to update a little earlier next week. I've got about half of the next chapter written. (It's actually probably going to be monstrously long… Might be easily twice as long as anything else I've written thus far.) So look forward to that!**


	4. Conflicts and Concerns

**Okay, so this isn't as long as I said it would be. I promise it's not because I got lazy! I'll explain after this chapter, I promise! (****Goes to prepare an umbrella)**

* * *

Two weeks had passed since they'd gone to the beach. The day was bright, with an air of happiness that seemed so light, so delicate,... so pressurized, so anxious. Why? Because Kira was about to ask Lacus something. Nothing serious. But hell, just asking was enough to make the very air he breathed suffacating. 

All he needed now was a little time. Hell, he could wait a little. Today didn't HAVE to be the day.

"Kira! Hey, how's it going!"

"_Crap. Okay, here goes nothing_." Kira put on the most casual smile he could muster and strolled over towards her. "So what's the big deal, calling me out here?" Lacus asked, in a fake tone of annoyance.

Kira suddenly let out the breath he'd been holding in the form of a stream of barely coherent words. "Oh, were you busy! I'm so sorry, you'd better get RIGHT BACK to what you were doing, don't worry about me I'm fine, but you should go back and finish what you were doing. I'm sorry for dragging you out here bye!"

Lacus caught his arm just as he turned and was about to sprint off in a fashion that closely resembled that of his sister's.

"No I wasn't busy. I was just teasing. You didn't drag me out, and are you sure you're okay?" Lacus questioned.

"Uh... okay sit down." He replied, motioning towards a nearby bench. After they were both seated Kira began. "Okay, well I heard that you... well no... umm lemme restart. You TOLD me that you had a gala to go to. The ones that you usually go to with Athrun? Well I thought, well I mean, if you wanted a change. Not that you'd get sick of Athrun! He's such an awesome guy! But maybe, just for a change, you wanted to go with someone else. I mean, yeah. I'm here..." He trailed off. Lacus blinked.

"Sure. I'll call Athrun. You can pick me up at 6pm all right?" She smiled. He looked up and raised and eyebrow.

"That easy?"

"This doesn't mean we're going steady." Lacus pointed out. "It's one date." Kira nodded.

"R-Right. Heh, it's just one date." He smiled, in some ways feeling more comfortable, that he didn't just drop a question the size of Antarctica. "Well that was relatively painless... Want lunch?" Kira offered. Lacus stood up and stretched.

"Lunch would be great."

* * *

"Dammit, Dammit, Dammit DAMMIT! HOLD ON!" Cagalli thundered across the room and lunged at the phone. Snatching up the receiver she screamed impatiently into the phone. 

"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAT!" Hearing laughter come from the other end, her eyebrow twitched, clearly irritated as she frowned. "What do you want Athrun?"

"I'm dead aren't I?" He joked, still trying to hold back his laughter. Hearing a growl he sighed and continued. "All right all right. Sorry. I'm guessing now isn't the best time?" He smirked.

"Well generally speaking, I don't like to be on the phone when I'm taking a shower, no." Cagalli responded sarcastically. "Get to the point."

"You know how you said you wanted to know more about my life?" He asked?

"Yeah? What about it?"

"There's this gala I have to go to this weekend. A mandatory thing. You want to come?" He offered. Cagalli paused.

"Sure, I guess. Why so sudden?" She asked hesitantly.

"Um, well you know how Lacus and I have been friends for a while right? In fact she was really my only female friend... Uh, anyways, usually I go to this kind of stuff with her..." He trailed off. Cagalli frowned.

"So I'm kind of just replacing her?" She paused. She felt like she had more to say, but couldn't really get it out.

"No no! Not at all. We were supposed to go this time... we've known about this thing for ages. But then Kira asked her out-" He started.

"WHAT! KIRA! MY brother, KIRA! Asked a GIRL out?" Cagalli was hysterical, completely forgetting her feelings from just a few moments ago.

"...Well yes I believe Lacus is female..." Athrun continued, evidently confused.

"That's... I can't believe he did... THEY DIDN'T TELL US!" She cried. Athrun shrugged.

"They're shy people. Besides it's nothing official. Apparently he turned as red as a sun-burned beet, but he still got it out. Now the gala..." He urged. Cagalli sensed a tone of desperateness in his voice.

"I already said I'd go. What do I have to wear?" She asked. Athrun grinned.

"Dress."

"Nothing doing."

"You asked."

"That's not what I wanted to hear."

Athrun chuckled. "We'll figure something out, okay?"

"If it's not necessary-!" She frowned. He hung up, the jerk.

* * *

Athrun parked in front of Cagalli's apartment building, then taking out his cell phone gave her a call. Moment later, she came running down the steps. Taking a long look at her, Athrun couldn't help but smirk. 

"Wow..."

"What?" asked Cagalli, in a curious tone that still somehow reflected her irritation.

"You're wearing a dress. Didn't think you'd actually do it." Athrun replied.

"Yeah, well I figured... Well hell, I mean I DON'T like this...at all. But I already said yes to you and if there's some blasted mandatory dress code well then I don't very well have a choice now do I? But you owe me for this. You owe be BIG TIME. Like, colossally, monstrously, enormously, humongous big time." She explained, then slipping into a threat towards the end. Athrun backed away slowly.

"Sorry, sorry. Yeah I got it. I'll sell you my soul or something later. And lemme guess. No pictures?"

Cagalli smacked his right shoulder with her purse. "Damn straight." Breaking into a grin, she got into his car and they drove off.

* * *

Kira felt nervous as hell. How was he supposed to act? It's not like he'd never gone out at night with her, but not on a date. Was this a date? Sure, but this didn't mean they were serious… Did he want it to mean that? Oh gawd was he supposed to buy her something? He looked at the bouquet of white lilies framed by peach orchids in his hand. Was this enough? He'd spent $70 on it... WAIT! What if it was too much! Just as he was about to turn around and run to get something else, when Lacus opened the door. 

"Kira? What are you doing? I'm right here." He turned around to face her, and suddenly melted into a smile. "Kira?..." Lacus repeated.

"You look stunning." He smiled.

"Thank you very much. I assume those are for me?" She pointed to the bouquet. Kira snapped out of his gaze.

"Oh... yeah. Sorry I didn't know what dress you were wearing or anything so I didn't know what to get..."

"They're gorgeous." She nodded. He beamed from her comment.

"Shall we be going?" He held out his hand. Bringing her delicate fingers to his lips for a moment, he gently took the rest of her hand and led her towards his car. Lacus smiled and followed him.

* * *

"Soooo where do you think they went?" Cagalli asked, holding her drink in her hand, which she really hadn't even tasted. 

"Hm?" Athrun turned towards her. "What?" Until a few moments he'd been busy speaking with faculty members who were present, and other representatives.

"Kira and Lacus." Cagalli frowned. "I don't see them anywhere..."

"Hey! Athrun!" A voice called from the far back of the room. A hand waved in the midst of the crowd and suddenly two guys appeared. "How's it going man? It's been a while." One of them had blond hair and very tanned skin, the other had remarkably silver hair and looked really... cocky.

"YOU BASTARDS!" Cagalli suddenly hollered, charging up to the two guys and raising her drink threateningly. Taken aback, Athrun and the two newcomers jumped.

"Ca...galli? Something... wrong?" Athrun hesitantly asked.

"YOU! THEY! " She sputtered... unable to speak coherently in her fury.

"Huh?" Both of them blinked. The tanned guy suddenly walked up to her and looked at her carefully.

"Come to think of it... I do seem to know you from somewhere..." He studied her a bit. "Can't put a name to it." He shrugged and turned his back towards her. Cagalli continued shaking with anger. Athrun frowned in confusion.

"How do you guys know her?"

"THEY'RE THE ONES THAT HIT ME WITH THAT VOLLEYBALL AND KNOCKED ME OUT!" She screamed. Both men froze.

"Ooooh yeah. Didn't recognize you with your eyes open." The silver-haired boy nodded slightly.

"Or without a jump of your head." The other guy added.

"Or without soda and ice cream all over your face." The first guy finished. They turned to each other and grinned. Meanwhile, Cagalli was preparing to send them flying into next Wednesday, when Athrun held her back.

"So how about an introduction!" he offered brightly, desperate to avoid blood spillage. "Cagalli, these guys are my friends from high school, Dearka and Yzak. Dearka is the blond, Yzak's the one who has silver hair but claims he doesn't dye it."

Yzak glared sharply at him. "You have blue hair. I wouldn't talk if I were you."

"Hey, yeah we really are sorry about the volleyball thing." Dearka offerend. "But we did take you to the nurse's station, right?" Cagalli nodded stiffly.

"An apology would be nice though" She fumed.

"We said sorry when we hit you, but you were probably already out cold by then..." He replied nervously, then quickly changing the subject added, "On a side note, Athrun since when do you date?"

Cagalli blinked. "Athrun... You've never dated before?"

Athrun elbowed Dearka sharply in the rib. Turning towards Cagalli, he became flustered, trying to figure out what to say.

"Uh, well... he means that I usually go with Lacus and that's not really dating. And so he means, um, like since when do I come with people that aren't Lacus."

Yzak rolled his eyes. "No. If he meant to say that, he would have said it. He meant, when did you start dating?"

"It's not a date." Cagalli explained. "Whatever, I was just curious. No need to get all flustered over this." She smiled, patting Athrun lightly on the head as if he were a six year old. Athrun raised an eyebrow.

"Stop that."

"Awww, does this bother you?"

"Are you guys sure you're not dating?" Dearka broke in. Athrun and Cagalli turned towards him at the same time.

"Yes."

The four people present all did a double take. Then as if on cue, Athrun and Cagalli began blushing.

"So... I'll finish the introductions. Dearka and Yzak are friends from high school, but they go to a different school where Yzak is the representative." Athrun babbled. Suddenly a thought crossed him. "Hey, Yzak why do you bring Dearka? I thought the invitation said that you could bring a date, not a friend."

Yzak and Dearka both shot him death glares. "What the hell are you trying to say, Athrun? The invitation says you can bring a guest." Yzak noted.

"Just saying." Athrun shrugged. "_Got'em..._ I mean. Just comparing our 'guests'. I used to come with Lacus, but she had an invitation too, so she wasn't a guest. So my first guest is Cagalli. Yet you've consistently brought Dearka... do you HAVE any other friends?"

"You're nuts." Dearka frowned. "Idiot." then breaking into a grin, added "Same as always." Even Yzak's I-am-going-to-maul-your-eyes-out look softened a little.

"All right, enough shots at each other for tonight. We'll see you later man. Good seeing you again." Yzak nodded and walked off, and Dearka followed after giving Athrun a quick punch on the arm. Cagalli blinked, still confused. Athrun turned to her.

"They're good guys. Kinda miss them a little." He sighed.

"Are you guys... always like that?" She questioned.

"Hm? Yeah, pretty much." Athrun nodded.

"That's great." Cagalli smiled. "That's really great. You looked like you were having fun."

"Well I'm having fun now too you know. Wtih you." He grinned. Cagalli blushed, then tried to cover it up with an annoyed face.

"What the hell's that supposed to mean?" She asked, her blush still evident. Athrun just kept grinning. Cagalli raised an eyebrow.

"Whatever." Turning around she started walking away. "I'm going to get another drink. This one's horrible." Athrun watched her walk off, a look of amusement playing on his face. Cagalli started walking faster, feeling his gaze follow her.

_"So he is happy..."_

* * *

Moments after Cagalli left Athrun, Kira tapped Athrun on the shoulder. Athrun turned and smiled. 

"Hey, how's it going? Where's Lacus? Lose her?" He joked.

"No, but in this crowd I wouldn't be surprised if I did. She's talking to some people now." Kira explained. "I'm surprised you aren't swamped with people."

"I've been crowded the whole night. Taking a break." Athrun explained.

"Cool. Where's Cagalli?"

"Getting another drink." Pausing, Athrun checked if Lacus was around. "So how's it going with Lacus? You going to tell her tonight?"

"I dunno. At this rate, I'm not even going to be able to talk to her by the end of the night." Kira frowned.

"Lighten up. After people start leaving it gets less hectic." Athrun encouraged. Suddenly, Lacus appeared by Kira's side.

"Hey! You ran off. Oh Athrun, how busy have you tonight?" She smiled, knowing that it wasn't an issue of whether or not he had been talking to people, but how many he had talked to.

"Yeah, kinda. Not as bad as expected." He replied.

"That reminds me! The science department head was looking for you." Lacus said. "Sorry." She added with a sympathetic smile.

"It's fine" He insisted. "I was feeling too passive anyways. If Cagalli comes back tell her to find me." Bidding them farewell, he walked off to find the department head.

* * *

Kira resumed his conversation with Lacus after Athrun left them. This wasn't so bad. It was just like any other time they were together. Until he remembered that it was an official date, and that unlike before, this wasn't due to a project. He had asked her, on his free time, to spend time with him, with her free time. They had decided, chosen, to spend time together with their free time. 

Oh man. And now, for the billionth time tonight, he got nervous.

Lacus watched Kira smiling, suppressing the urge to laugh. He had lapsed into his habit of stuttering and trying to look anywhere but at her. She recognized that symptoms well. He had gotten nervous again.

Gently, she touched his shoulder with her hand.

"Relax. Okay?"

Kira turned sharply. "Huh? Oh-... yeah." He smiled sheepishly. "This is... nice. I wish we could spend more time together like this."

Lacus nodded in agreement. "Same here."

Kira shifted around, apparently VERY fascinated by his drink. He passed it back and forth between his hands, needing something to keep him occupied.

"How often do you want to spend time together?"

Lacus blinked. "Um... more often?"

Kira looked up at her, and stared into her eyes. "How about seriously?"

Lacus would have blinked, but for some reason was unable to tear her gaze from his. Kira swallowed the remaining fear he had. "I know that this is our first real date. It's not really much of one. But I've known you for a while now, and I don't think I've ever felt closer to someone is such a... relatively short amount of time. I...I really want to give this a try. If you don't want to that's fine. But I mean, seriously as in being my...I...I don't know what I'm saying anymore." He frowned and stopped talking. "But you get the point right?"

Lacus laughed and took Kira's hand. "Yeah of course. If you ask me, it's about time." Kira smiled and put his arm around her waist.

"Relatively easy... heh. Well then, I guess that's that." Lacus have him a long look and smiled.

_"Yes, it is."_

* * *

Athrun finally found the Head of the Department, after weaving his way in and out of the sea of people for a good half hour. Waving at him, he approached and shook his hand. 

"Hello sir. You wanted to see me?"

"Yes I did. Um... come, let's go someone a bit more secluded." Together they walked over to the side, into a private room. "Athrun, some of the professors have been raising some concerns regarding you... and your conduct as of late."

Athrun frowned slightly. "Whatever do you mean?"

The Head continued, "Well, you see, I've been told your grades have been slipping. Nothing drastic; it's not like you're in danger of failing. But they are dipping a bit. In fact, at this pace by the end of the semester you may not be the top student in the department."

Athrun froze. How was this possible? He'd noticed that his grades were dropping slightly. From perfect scores to missing a question or two. But did it make that much of a difference? His thoughts were interrupted as the Head pressed on, eager to explain the situation.

"I don't want to alarm you or anything of the sort. But since your professors have personally been coming to me regarding this matter, I thought it best that you know. You're a very prized student at this university. We have high standards for you, and so we expect that you should live up to those."

Athrun nodded. "Of course sir. That you for alerting me regarding this matter. I'll start correcting this immediately. I haven't been feeling well lately. I'll try to-" He tried to explain his way out of this. In truth he'd never felt better. But having the Head think he was sick was better than having the Head think he was getting stupid.

"Actually Athrun, there's something else. We've never had a problem with who you associate yourself with. Ms.Clyne for example, was a wonderful influence to have. However, in addition to informing me regarding your grades, you professors have also informed me regarding your company as of late."

Athrun heat forgot to beat for a moment. Could they possibly be talking about?...

"Ms. Attha, I believe her name is?"

Athrun felt something break and drop inside of him. _Oh god... oh god please not..._

"She's a wonderful person, I'm sure. All of these professors spoke to me about what a ebullient personality she has. However, her own grades, I'm afraid are less then perfect."

Athrun was unable to speak. He wanted to speak and defend Cagalli, but he didn't know how. But hearing someone talk about her like this... knowing people were talking about her like this. As if she was just a-

"Distraction. I believe that may be the best word to describe what we're looking at. As nice as she is, if she's interfering with your studies, perhaps it would be best to not-"

"Associate myself with her." Athrun finished in a lame tone. "Right?"

The Head nodded curtly. "Yes, well that's essentially what the staff feels would be best for you. It's, again, not that we don't like her. But her grades are only average and you are anything but average. Perhaps it would be better to find more... suitable company?"

Athrun nodded. "I..I'll consider your wishes very carefully sir. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go." He walked out of the room in a hurry, eyes fixed to the ground, needing time to sort his thoughts...

Unaware that a certain blond haired woman, who he had told to come to find him, had found him for a while now. Her eyes dark, she turned in the other direction and walked away.

* * *

Kira smiled, sitting at the table with Lacus and holding her hand casually. Both of them spoke in light tones, letting out the occasional laugh. Suddenly, his eye caught the glare of light off of a blonde head of hair for a moment. 

"Hey, Cagalli! Did you find him!" he called out to her, waving her over to joined him and Lacus.

Cagalli jumped, as if startled to hear someone call her name. Shaking her thoughts out of her head, she walked over.

"Yeah I found him... he was busy though."

Lacus tilted her head in mild confusion. "Why didn't you wait for him?"

"Um... he was busy." Cagalli tried to shrug off the question. "I'm going to go outside for some fresh air... Athrun can come and find me if he wants." She added the last sentence bitterly, as if only saying it out of need.

Kira and Lacus did not fail to catch her tone. However, Cagalli stalked off before they could press the issue. Only moments later did Athrun wander out of the crowd and approach them.

"Hey have you guys ummm seen-."

"Cagalli?" Kira finished for him. Athrun jumped slightly at the sound of her name.

"Umm.. yeah sure I guess." He tried to shrug it off casually, similar to Cagalli. However, contrary to how Cagalli seemed to be frustrated, he seemed to be concerned.

"She said she was going outside." Lacus explained. Athrun nodded, still avoiding eye contact.

"I'll go... uh, I'll go find her." He paused for a moment. "Later. I'll go find her later." He then walked away in the opposite direction.

Kira and Lacus exchanged looks.

"So even though things with us are better..."

"It looks like it's just beginning with them."

* * *

They both stood up and hurried off. 

Cagalli sat outside, on the edge of a fountain, splashing the water with her right hand. She picked up the occasional penny inside and after watching the lights from inside the fountain bounce of the glisten of the edges, she tossed it back in.

"No wishing for me please." She muttered.

"Everything okay?"

Cagalli jumped slightly and turned around, finding herself facing her brother, who had his jacket slung over his shoulder and his other hand in his pocket.

"Hm? Oh... yeah it's fine." She nodded shivering slightly. Kira draped his jacket over her shoulders.

"What's up?"

"Just... stuff. Nothing serious."

"Really?" Kira raised an eyebrow testily. Cagalli looked at him.

"You can tell huh?"

"Oh yeah." He closed his eyes and nodded. Cagalli let out an amused laugh briefly and smiled.

"So what do you want to know?"

"What do you want to say?"

"Can I just ask questions?"

"If you want to."

And so the siblings sat there for a while, their hands wading in the fountain. Finally Cagalli gathered her words.

"Do you ever worry? About how you affect Lacus?"

"Yeah, all the time." Kira responded curtly. Cagalli blinked.

"Then why... why aren't you going insane like I AM!"

Kira laughed. "Why do you think it took so long for me to ask her out?" Cagalli grew quiet.

"So then..."

"Just wait." Kira finished. "It's all you can do." He gathered her in his arms and gave her a long hug.

"I'm not a patient person..." She muttered.

"You'd be surprised how easy it is." Kira smiled. "Whether or not Athrun likes the way you affect him, that's his choice. And when he figures it out, he'll tell you."

* * *

Meanwhile, Lacus had found Athrun leaning against a large window, which led out to a balcony. 

"Hey." She spoke aloud, making her presence noticed. Athrun turned sharply and looks at her.

"Hey." He waved weakly. "It looks like you and Kira finally settled it. That's great."

"Yeah." Lacus nodded. "How bad is it?"

"Bad." Athrun responded. "I had no idea..."

"We rarely realize it ourselves. But now that you have, what are you going to do?" she questioned.

He frowned. "It's not fair. This kind of thing. My grades..."

"There's always an effect."

"But just because-"

"Yes." She answered his question. It hurt him, it really did. He didn't think about it that way. But if he didn't do something...

"Okay." He sighed. "Okay. There's nothing I can do except...that."

* * *

By the time Athrun had found Cagalli, it was time to go home. They talked casually the rest of the way. 'Did you have fun?' and other empty dialogue. 

When he finally pulled up in front of her apartment complex they both fell silent.

"Well, thanks." She reached for the door handle and made a motion to leave. He put his hand on her shoulder to stop her.

"We need to talk." he spoke simply, eyes not leaving the dashboard.

"Your conversation with the head?" She asked, still not turning to face him.

Athrun jerked his gaze towards her, then realization hit his face and his expression softened. "You heard?..."

Cagalli nodded.

"How much?..." He asked out of curiosity.

"All of it." She answered plainly.

He smiled and shook his head lightly. "Okay then... Okay. So then, you can understand why I'm doing this." He said, speaking more to himself then to her.

"I think it may be best, if we stop spending time together."

* * *

**(Pulls out the said-prepared umbrella to block the hail of rotten cherry tomatoes being thrown at me.)**

**Quite a departure from my usual stuffs huh? But face it, there's bound to be SOME conflict. I know I promised and uber-long chapter last time, and to tell the truth, this was an uber-long chapter. BUT, the original chapter I had didn't end here. But then I thought it might be fun to end with a cliffhanger at least once. Sorry! This is kinda long though. Longest thing I've written so far, even with the ending chopped off.**

**The good news is that because I ended here, and the other "half" is written I'll be updating earlier, so you don't have to wait a whole week. Since the next part is only a half of a full chapter (like this) it's going to be shorter. It's also going to be, purely Athrun and Cagalli stuffs. But until then, I'd like to torture some people. Ahahaha…. Uhh no, not really. I just want to have SOME sort of suspense, and maybe even prod some of you passive readers into reviewing! **

**I know the Dearka and Yzak thing was kind of random, but still: I love those guys. Sorry that Dearka and Mirillia aren't together, but Milly clobbering Cagalli with a volleyball? I just don't see it… As for my next cameo I really have no idea who to stick in. Any suggestions? **

**Thank you again to my wonderful reviewers! (mariad, stuntsheep, animemistress419, gseedlover, kura52, RoGuE-WhItE-DrAgOn, HimeHikari, loverofasucag, Icey, FenrirX13, SEEDSummoner, Fingers905, cloudymind, Taraneh. ) I'm getting more and more with every chapter! Yes I do take the time to read and consider absolutely every single one and every single one counts! So keep them coming!**

**Also, thank you to the casual reader. You guys all count too!**

**Finally, I can't update the song page on my profile because… sadly I can't find the lyrics. So sorry to anyone who even cares. **

**So, until next chapter! Bye bye!**


	5. A Private Peace

**Wow… so no death threats? That's good too hear. Heh… I'm happy to see that the last chapter elicited the exact response I was going for. So, be prepared to be surprised!**

* * *

_"I think it may be best, if we stop spending time together_…" 

Athrun had still not lifted his face towards her, as if he was too scared to. Cagalli sat in silence, her hand still on the door handle. It was it that moment had been frozen, and neither person said anything. Cagalli's grip on the handle tightened slightly.

"This... is your decision?" She bitterly forced the words out of her mouth, hating the way they tasted as she held them back, and hating the way they sounded in her ears even more. Athrun looked serious, eyes dark and eyebrows furrowed. He gave a curt nod.

"You understand though, right? Why? I mean... you heard." He tried to explain, feebly. Cagalli felt something inside of her break.

"Yeah. So that's it huh?... Am I allowed to talk to you anymore?" She questioned sarcastically.

"Of course. It's just that... not outside of classes. I think that should do it."

Another awkward pause. Both felt like they should say something, but neither could think of anything to say. Athrun opened his mouth dryly, as if he had something to add. Cagalli eagerly anticipated it, as if hoping he'd say something like "Joking!", or pull something stupid like that. However, wordlessly, he shut it again and she frowned.

"Fine." Cagalli concluded bitterly. "Fine. Good luck with your grades then." She felt the anger in her well up slowly. She had never thought he was this kind of person. She knew he cared about his grades, but this much? She had never thought... not even for a moment had she doubted him. _"I guess I didn't know him as well as I thought..."_

Suddenly she realization about what she was doing hit her. She caught herself in a jolt and sighed, as if tired and embarrassed.

"Geez, what am I saying? I understand Athrun, I really do." She let out a strange laugh briefly. "I'm acting like we're a couple breaking up or something, but hell not only are we not together, but we've only been friends for less than 2 months. I'm such a nut."

She turned to him, finally. "Good luck, all right? I'll be seeing you around... and... don't do anything stupid. I'm not going to be able to look out for you or anything anymore, so even though I know now, personally, how seriously you take grades, well…don't take them too seriously. Remember to have some fun." She opened the door.

Suddenly, Athrun's hand, which was on her shoulder pulled her back into the car. Cagalli's neck jerked back to face him, only to find him staring curiously at her.

"Cagalli..You say you understand, but I don't think you do."

Cagalli glared angrily at him. "What the hell are you talking about! I heard you and the head speaking. I heard it all! I know that your grades are slipping dammit!"

"That's not it!" Athrun protested.

"Don't make excuses! Your grades are important! I understand that!" Cagalli insisted.

"DON'T ACT LIKE YOU UNDERSTAND WHEN YOU DON'T AT ALL!" Athrun yelled furiously, venting his frustration.

"THEN WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING THIS FOR!" Cagalli exploded. "I know I'm taking this too seriously, for all it's worth. But I don't care! If it was anyone else I wouldn't give it a second thought. I'd just say fine and walk away! But you're different dammit! And if for some damn screwed up reason you want to let yourself get pushed around like pet gerbil and really don't mind, and actually like it, then FINE! But you better have a damn good reason for wanting it!"

Athrun's mouth dropped slightly in surprise. Recovering quickly from the initial shock, he launched into his defense. "This isn't about my grades! I don't care if they're dropping! I could pull them up anytime! No I'm not being cocky!..." He said, as he observed the doubtful look she had shot him.

"I'm being dead serious! Don't you get it Cagalli? You heard what the department said! Everyone thinks of you as a distraction! And I don't want that! I don't want people to look at you through me! I don't want them to judge you based on your effects on me! You're more then that and they don't see it!"

"You think I CARE ABOUT WHAT THEY THINK OF ME!" Cagalli screamed.

"YOU THINK I CARE ABOUT MY GRADES!" Athrun shot back.

"THIS ISN'T ABOUT WHAT THEY THINK!"

"THIS ISN'T ABOUT WHAT THEY THINK OF ME EITHER!"

"THEN WHY THE HELL ARE WE STILL YELLING?" Cagalli yelled so loudly, she could swear that some permanent lung damage was being done. But for a moment, there was nothing but silence. She opened her eyes and stared at Athrun... and suddenly.

He grinned….and burst out laughing.

Cagalli blinked in shock, but the sound of his voice laughing and the light tone that it captured was contagious. Soon she found herself laughing so hard that she was holding her stomach in pain.

After the laughter had subsided, both of them leaned back into their chair. Athrun turned his head to look at her.

"So what the hell IS this about?" He asked, in an amused tone, his voice weak from the combination of screaming and laughing.

Cagalli shrugged. "It's about…misunderstanding."

"Let's talk about this. I mean... really talk." Athrun suggested. "Before we…. Or rather. I, do something really stupid and cut our friendship on an assumption."

Cagalli nodded. "Sounds good. What do you have for me?"

"Well, I dunno. Don't I annoy you sometimes? I'm too serious, I over-complicate things and I'm always unwilling to do half the insane things you want to. I mean, I'm sorry but solo sky-diving isn't the first that comes to mind, when think of a REGULAR, LEISURELY weekend activity." Athrun joked lightly.

Cagalli blushed slightly. "I thought it would be fun…" she mumbled. "Whatever. Okay, I can understand that you DON'T like taking risks. You like to think things out. I know that. But you don't annoy me. If you weren't so serious, well Kira would have my head for going out of my mind and trying half the stuff I want to try. Now my question: Don't I annoy YOU? I'm so crazy and I always drag you into doing the most obscene and obscure things that I amaze myself sometimes." Cagalli shook her head, in disbelief. Athrun grinned.

"Naw. I'm happy to be your anchor."

"And I'm happy to be the boat that pulls the reluctant stubborn anchor along."

Athrun laughed and sighed.

"Okay, now the real stuff. I thought, that we should stop being friends and that you should disassociate yourself from me, because I realized that people weren't getting to know you. They all just think that you're a bad influence, because you're just an average student." He explained.

"Okay... and I thought you wanted to stop hanging out with me because I was making your grades drop." Cagalli added.

"So then..."

"We're BOTH idiots." Cagalli concluded with a nod. Athrun chuckled.

"Guess so... So now that we're BOTH wrong… What are we going to do?"

"Well assuming that neither of us actually WANT to stop hanging out together..." Cagalli started, giving Athrun a look. Athrun blinked and shook his head furiously. "Okay... how can we do this? No screaming, like what I like to do. NO OVER-THINKING THINGS, like you want to do… or dare I say, have done all night?"

Athrun nodded sheepishly. "Yeah… Well what do you want to do? Compromise? Scream while thinking?"

Cagalli shrugged. "Your move man. You got us into this."

"Fine." Athrun accepted her frustration. "For once, I'll simply things. Right now, face it. I do need you to drag me out of my dorm and expose me to the sun. At the same time, even though your grades are average, you could be doing much better." Athrun saw Cagalli raise an eyebrow doubtfully. "Really." He sat up. "See where I'm going with this?..." He hinted mildly.

"Fine... from now on, you're my personal tutor and I'm your social coach." Cagalli put plainly. Athrun frowned.

"Social coach? What's that supposed to mean? I know how to act in society!"

"Yeah, if you had a lunch meeting with the Queen of English I'm sure you'd be fine." Cagalli rolled her eyes. "I'm talking about casual society! Pop culture! Taking it easy, relaxing, stuff like that."

Athrun still seem unsatisfied. "What's wrong with being refined and polite?"

"Nothing! Geez, man, don't take it so seriously. I just mean, I'll help you act more...normal. On a regular basis." Cagalli struggled for words. Athrun frowned.

"I'll let you pull me around, but I won't call you my 'social coach'..."

"FINE!" Cagalli threw her hands up in frustration.

"Okay... then that's settled." What do you need the most help with?"

"Blah, stuff. I dunno. Physics would be nice... but oh wait! My English literature professor said that my compositions lack structure. And… how are you at French verb conjugation?"

"Okay..." Athrun nodded. "Physics I can do. I guess I can do English too... but really Lacus would be better suited for that. And I don't take French… so we definitely need Lacus for those. " he sighed.

"How many people are we getting involved in this?" Cagalli raised an eyebrow.

"I dunno. Oh wait, Kira's better at computer programming. Are you taking that?" Athrun shrugged and added.

"No... but if Lacus is joining us, Kira will want to tag along too. Besides I'd hate to leave him out." Cagalli lifted her head in consideration.

"True true. All four of us?"

"Next Sunday."

"At 11am."

"For lunch at that cafe down the street."

"Then your house."

"For studying."

"Deal."

"Deal."

Athrun and Cagalli shook hands firmly, both wearing sloppy grins.

"First lesson! Dating and dealing with those fangirls of yours!" Cagalli proclaimed proudly. "I'll be a great social coach! Just you wait!" Athrun blinked.

"I have fans?"

Cagalli was dumbstruck. "You didn't know?" upon seeing Athrun shake his head shyly, she continued. "You never noticed that group of girls that follow you around. You NEVER see the stalkers!"

At this point she was frantically waving her hand around, making hand motions and gestures as if acting out the fangirls with her hands. Athrun couldn't help but crack a smile, but still shook his head. Cagalli suddenly slumped forward and her head hit the dashboard. Started, Athrun jumped forward.

"Are you okay!"

Unexpectedly, Cagalli's hand came soared out of nowhere and flew past his face. "You idiot! You're totally oblivious!" She glared long and hard at him.

Athrun blink and finally shrugged. Exasperated, Cagalli finally stepped out of the car. Then halting her step and turning around, she paused.

"We should probably tell Kira and Lacus about this huh? I mean… making plans that involve them and all."

Athrun laughed. "I'm on it. Have a good night."

Cagalli nodded and walked towards her apartment building. Athrun waited outside in the car, until he saw the light of her apartment turn on. Satisfied, he smiled and drove off.

_"So that's the way it's going to be..."_

* * *

**Bwahahaha… sorry if I scared anyone there. Had to go for the cliffhanger though. Just HAD to. **

**So yes! You Athrun and Cagalli nuts…err... fans can rest easy now! snort As if I'd ever break then up… **

**From what I'm seeing, I think that the last chapter made people assume that Athrun was too worried about his grades? Similar to what Cagalli thought? Yeah, I figured, in this situation, he would certainly be concerned about that, but would probably be absolutely frantic about how his actions may affect others. So, I went for the 'wanting to keep Cagalli an individual' thing. **

**So, some of you may be wondering if this weird break up of a massive chapter I did will affect the next update. Well, because of my lame chopping up, the next chapter will be coming a week from the date that I posted chapter four. (Err… that's a Tuesday for me and I live in North America). In other words, although I haven't started writing it, it's coming in about five or so days. **

**Until then, reviews, please! **


	6. Weekend Wager

**Wow, time for another update. The time seemed to pass so quickly! I'm happy to see that it looks like most people were happy with the last chapter, yes? Haha, even though I wanted tension, and I honestly had planned on separating them for a bit, when I came to write it I just couldn't do it! But anyways, once more, I'll get on with the story and do more of my rambling at the end. **

* * *

Kira drove up the street to the cafe, where he was supposed to meet Athrun, Cagalli and Lacus. Frustrated, he found that for some reason it was literally impossible to get a parking spot. After driving around the block for a good 15 minutes, he had still failed to find a place that was reasonably close to the cafe. Glancing down at his watch he frowned.

_"I'm 10 minutes late..."_

He pulled quickly into an open spot and ran the rest of the way. Finally arriving, he found Athrun and Lacus in front, Athrun leaning against the large window and Lacus sitting on one of the outside chair. She was drumming her fingers against a table and Athrun checked his watch every... 3 or so seconds. Seeing Kira coming, Lacus got up and ran towards him, giving him a quick hug. Athrun gave a short wave.

"Have you seen Cagalli?" He asked. Kira blinked.

"Isn't she supposed to be here?"

"Haven't seen or heard from her all morning." Athrun replied.

"Maybe we should go to her apartment, and check up on her. Something maybe have happened." Lacus suggested. Athrun nodded in agreement and began to hurry off. Suddenly, Kira remembered something, and reached out to grab Athrun's shoulder.

"Slow down there man. It's a Saturday, isn't it?"

Athrun nodded. "So?"

Kira chuckled. "How long have you known Cagalli?"

Lacus blinked. "Neither of us have known her terribly long. Certainly not as long as you have."

Kira kept grinning. "No rush man. Lemme just say that is was a mistake to try to arrange a meeting with her before 12 on a Saturday."

_**

* * *

**_

Cagalli rolled over lazily as Athrun, Kira and Lacus stood at the doorway of her bedroom. Lacus blinked in disbelief.

"You're kidding!... It's 11:30 and she's STILL asleep?"

Kira nodded. "It's practically impossible to get her up before 12 on a Saturday."

"Practically?" Athrun raised an eyebrow. Kira nodded.

"Yeah there's one way. But I don't know if it works anymore... she kinda grew immune to it because I had to do it so much. Unless..." Kira seemed to have an idea. "Okay, let's try this."

_**

* * *

**_

Cagalli tried to roll over again, but promptly bumped into something. She groaned. _"What the hell is that?... Oh... it must be Kira trying to wake me up again. Just like when we were kids. Get real Kira. Climbing into my bed isn't going to work anymore..."_ She half-smiled at her own cleverness in her state of half-consciousness.

However... she still wanted to roll over. It was her own damn bed. "Get off." she muttered. Nothing. Frustrated, she rolled over forcefully until she felt herself hit the lump. Angrily she began pushing against the lump, all the while holding onto the blanket with a death grip and still half asleep. Taking a deep breath she prepared to give a final shove... until...

"_Wait a minute". _

"_This isn't Kira... This isn't Kira's scent. He's my brother. I'd recognize his scent anywhere."_

"_And this isn't him."_

"_This is..."_

"_This is..."_

"_Also someone familiar..."_

"_This is... Ath-"_

"ATHRUN!" Cagalli bolted upright and gave an angry kick to the lump. It rolled off her bed and suddenly she heard laughter erupt around her. Her gaze shifted sharply towards the door, where she was Lacus laughing so hard that she was barely standing, and Athrun already doubled over on the floor.

"But if Athrun's there... then..." She kicked the lump, which was also laughing mercilessly. Slowly the blankets unraveled, to reveal...

"KIRA!" Cagalli shrieked, lunging for his throat. "Why the hell? How did you?" She gave her brother, who was still laughing hysterically, a long look. "Athrun's...jacket? YOU PUT ON HIS JACKET!"

After laughing for a good five minutes straight, Kira, still with tears in his eyes and chuckling took of the jacket and handed it back to Athrun. "Thanks man. Couldn't have done it without you."

"Anytime." Athrun replied, still recovering from his fit of laughter himself. He took it back and put it on. "Certainly entertaining."

Meanwhile, Lacus was trying to console a furious Cagalli, who was determined to kill her brother. "I'll STEP ON HIM! LIKE THE WORM HE IS! You almost gave me a HEART ATTACK!"

"It's your fault. Don't suggest 11am if you know you can't get up that early." Athrun teased.

"I didn't suggest it! YOU did!" She protested.

"But you agreed."

Cagalli blinked, frowned slightly. Then as soon as she felt Lacus' grip loosen, she made another lunge at Kira, causing the room to erupt into laughter again.

"But why would you think, ever for a minute, that Athrun would be in your bed?" Kira teased, taunting her from a safe distance. Cagalli blinked and blushed furiously.

"That... that's why I was so surprised..." A similar shade of bright red could also be seen on Athrun's face. They exchanged looks briefly and Athrun turned to leave.

"We should get going. Umm still the cafe, right?" He managed, hiding his face. Kira nodded and followed him out. Cagalli scuttled to her bathroom. Lacus sat onto the bed and sighed.

"They're soo... them."

_**

* * *

**_

Finally arriving at the cafe, Kira pulled out Lacus' chair for her and then took his seat. Athrun moved to do the same for Cagalli then caught himself. _"Wait... am I supposed to do this?"_

Cagalli sat down herself and began chatting with Lacus. Frowning slightly took his seat lamely.

Kira went to buy their drinks: An iced coffee for Cagalli, a coffee for Athrun, a lemonade for Lacus and a cappuccino for himself. Meanwhile, the three left at the table began to chat lightly.

"Sorry for dragging you into this Lacus... but Athrun said that you could help me with my compositions." Cagalli explained.

"It's not problem at all, really. I'm glad to help." Lacus assured.

"Well that's good to hear. Happy to know that we aren't troubling you and Kira too much." Athrun smiled and gave a quick wink. "From uh... your personal affairs..."

They laughed light-heartedly. "Yeah right. The day Kira tries anything like that will be the day you start dating." Lacus joked. Cagalli blinked.

"Whoa. You mean Dearka and Yzak weren't kidding? You've never dated before?" Cagalli stared in amazement.

"Eh… well…I-I've never had a serious relationship, n-no. But it-it's not like I've never given it an honest effort. It-It's just that-" Athrun stammered, slightly blushing.

"You're too shy." Lacus finished, rising to help the returned Kira distribute the drinks. "I remember. You dated some girls on and off, but were so clumsy. Whenever they even started flirting mildly you freaked out and suddenly lost the ability to speak."

Kira chuckled and nodded in agreement. "That sounds like Athrun all right. 'umm..err...uh...'" He did an uncanny impression of Athrun, to which Lacus, Kira and Cagalli all laughed at. Athrun however, couldn't' be anymore embarrassed.

"It's not my fault! Those girls... I mean. Geez... they're all nuts! I swear!" he struggled.

"But you've had plenty of offers, right?" Cagalli persisted.

"Well they aren't really fair... no wait. What's that supposed to mean?" Athrun frowned.

"Wow Athrun. I never knew you were such a relationship dunce!" Cagalli teased.

"If I recall Cagalli... you aren't much better." Kira remarked. Cagalli shot him a glare. Athrun, suddenly out of the spotlight grinned.

"Oh? Is that so Kira?" He laughed.

"Mmhmm. In high school she barely dated anyone. Whenever someone even suggested that they liked her she froze up." Kira smiled. "Kinda like you Athrun."

Lacus smiled. "Wow, so both of you have never had a serious relationship?"

"Well... that's not it exactly!" Athrun and Cagalli protested simultaneously. They stopped and looked at each other in surprise. Kira and Lacus burst out laughing.

"My my... isn't that interesting?" Lacus smiled.

"Change of topic please." Cagalli muttered under her breath, trying to hide the color of her face.

"Whatever floats your boat." Kira offered. "I still get to make fun of you as much as I want later." He broke into a grin. Athrun stood up suddenly.

"Excuse me for a moment... uh... I uh.. forgot to wash my hands." He bolted towards the bathroom, desperately trying to use his hair as some sort of curtain to cover the embarrassed look on his face. Lacus and Kira merely kept laughing and even Cagalli cracked a smile under her blush.

"You guys... are really sadistic." She frowned, turning towards them. "Maybe it was a mistake to ask for your help after all... if all you're going to do is scare away my physics tutor."

Kira gave her a grin as a silent apology and Lacus merely stifled her laughed into bursts of giggles. Cagalli sighed and took a sip of her drink.

_**

* * *

**_

Athrun frowned in front of the sink, staring at his reflection in the mirror, checking to se if the blush had subsided. "Geez... those guys..." he muttered.

A spot on the hem of his jacket caught his eye. Taking it off to examine it, he brought it up to his eye. "Must have... gotten it on there when I stood up..."

Suddenly, he sniffed the jacket. "Weird..." he thought. "It smells like Cagalli..." Suddenly remember the events of today's lively morning, he chuckled. "Must be from when Kira worn it."

He turned to leave the washroom, then froze to a stop. "Wait... how do…why would I know how Cagalli smells?..." he felt his face heat up and he ran back towards the sink, splashing water onto his face. "Damn...blush. I must be losing it."

_**

* * *

**_

After Athrun returned to the table, the topic of conversation had changed. The four talked casually while eating, then went back to Cagalli's apartment, as planned, for a study session.

"Okay, so you can see the conflict between the Einstein's theory of gravitation, which explains the behavior of large objects, and Quantum Mechanics, which explains the behavior of really small ones, right?" Athrun pointed to a few diagrams in Cagalli's text, and Caglli put her nose close to the page and squinted.

"Ye-Yeah. I think so." Falling back, she collapsed onto the back of the couch. "Enough physics. Lacus, get over here."

Athrun chuckled and began to clean up her notes. "Okay that's fine. We'll take a break."

Lacus smiled and sat down. "So where do you want to start?" The two women began talking and going over Cagalli's past papers, and comments written on them. Meanwhile, Athrun had walked over to where Kira was and started chatting.

"So Athrun. Some people I know want to have a party in like 2 weeks... you know. Spring break and all." Kira had barely spoken when suddenly Cagalli stood up.

"Hooooooooooold it! I'M SUPPOSED TO BE HIS SOCIAL COACH!"

Kira and Lacus blinked. "Social coach?"

Athrun tried to hide himself by burying his head into the couch.

"Yeah that's right!" Cagalli continued.

"NO! NO IT'S NOT!" Athrun hollered, emerging from the couch.

"Eh?" Kira and Lacus still wore the same confused expression.

"I decided that if Athrun helped me with Physics I'm help him with society."Cagalli explained proudly. Athrun tried to hide himself again.

"Well what a great idea! Can I help?" Lacus offered encouragingly.

"No, no you can't." Athrun's muffled desperate voice was heard, whimpering slightly from mortification. Kira laughed and sat next to him on the couh, tearing away Athrun's grip on a cushion.

"It can't be that bad. Why not let Cagalli get started with you, and Me and Lacus will go into the kitchen and refill on snacks?" He laughed. He walked over to Lacus and they headed towards the kitchen. Cagalli plopped down beside Athrun and stretched.

"Okay! First lesson: Dating!" She grinned. Athrun frowned.

"Why is dating the FIRST lesson?"

"Because apparently, you don't have must experience." Cagalli teased. Athrun bit his tongue to keep himself from retorting a similar response... because apparently her situation wasn't much different from his.

"Fine, what do you have for me?"

"Questions... to see how much you know already. Okay?"

"Shoot."

"Mmm... Do you kiss on the first date?" Cagalli asked. "If he can't get this question right I'm going to kill him."

"No." Athrun replied curtly.

"Ahhh, good! I don't have to slaughter you yet! Okay, first date, any physical contact?"

"Eh? you mean, at all?" Athrun clarified. Cagalli nodded. "Oh okay, well sure I guess. Nothing too intimate, but at least a hug or something." He finished.

"Right again! You're not that bad at this!" Cagalli remarked. "Okay, now for a VERY importnat one. on the first date, do you let the girl pay from both you and her?"

"No." Athrun replied. Cagalli paused.

"Do you let her pay for herself?..." She asked cautiously.

"No." He repeated.

"What if she offers to pay?"

"Still no."

"Ever let her pay?"

"Never."

"Wha... NO!" Cagalli protested. Athrun raised an eyebrow.

"No?"

"NO!" She insisted.

"Why not?"

"What are you TRYING to suggest that she's not CAPABLE of paying for herself! Women are capable of paying their own way!"

"EH!" Athrun cried. "What the... no. Not at all. What on earth?... I mean. Why would I let her pay? The guy should always pay on a first date!"

Lacus and Kira re-entered the room. Upon seeing the pair bicker, Kira took a step back and Lacus carefully placed the plate on the coffee table and took a step back."

"You can't assume that she can't pay! What if she really wants to?"

"It doesn't matter! It's not proper manners to have her pay! Especially on a first date!"

"I'm the social coach! You're supposed to listen to me! Not argue with me!"

"Stop calling yourself that! You're not a coach. You're horrible! You've had just as much experience dating as I have! Which is currently... NILCH!" Athrun emphasized. Cagalli stared at him incredulously.

"Nilch! NILCH! Is THAT SO!" She glared.

"Yes! From what Kira and Lacus said-" Athrun paused and gave them a look. Cagalli took a quick glace their way. Both of them took a step back.

"Not involved man. Not involved." Kira raised his hands, palms open and facing them, defensively.

"We didn't mean for the earlier conversation to erupt into this..." Lacus admitted, a bit regretful.

"Fine! Whatever! Even if I have less experience, I could gain experience anytime!" Cagalli argued.

"ANYTIME! Well isn't SOMEONE getting cocky! You think you're that socially capable?" Athrun frowned.

"Compared to present company, most assuredly!" She shot back.

"What's that supposed to mean!" He demanded an explanation.

"I mean, I bet I could get a boyfriend.. a steady boyfriend sooner then you could get a steady girlfriend! Despite your fangirls!" Cagalli quipped. Athrun's eyes narrowed dangerously.

"Oh? Care to make a wager?"

"Wonderful. Name your price. How much are you willing to lose?" Cagalli threatened mildly.

"A dare. The winner can dare the loser to do absolutely anything. And the loser must accept."

"Sounds good to me." Cagalli grinned, confidently matching the sure expression on Athrun's face. Extending their hands, they gave a firm handshake.

"It's a deal!"

_**

* * *

**_

**So then, place your bets! Who's going to come out the winner of this bet, and more important, do we WANT there to be a winner?**

**I wrote this chapter, originally to emphasize the idea that Athrun and Cagalli are not a couple at this point? Why? Because a couple wouldn't dare each other to go and date someone else seriously! Haha, I also wanted to have more interaction with the four of them, and also get moving in a more focused direction. **

**So next chapter: The terms are set. The rules are agreed upon and the terms are signed. Let the games begin! Also, one of them might actually get started in the next chapter. We'll see how much I decide to cram in. **

**Now, regarding the last chapter, I think in general people were happy with how it turned out. But I think some people were disappointed with how there was such a speedy resolution to such an evident problem. Well Athrun and Cagalli… truly probably would drag it on a little longer. But at the same time, I don't think the last chapter was too OOC, was it? Cagalli probably would come upfront with it and force Athrun to talk. Whether or not it was too sudden, well that's up to you. I can certainly understand why some people would think it was too easy of a solution though.**

**So I present this chapter. Believe me, the next few chapter will not have an easy solution and I will drag this on. Why? Because I have high hopes for this new plot direction so I hope I can do a lot with this. **

**Now, shoutout to my reviewers! From the last chapter: **

**Kira52, peachy, asga, invain, HimeHikari, mariad, MyouseiSeed, jenniferseedlover, stuntsheed, gseedlover, animemistress419, XxBeyndTheCloudSxX, Susan, xoxoanimeluber, koali aloalo, clumsy kelli, ANONYMOUS and RoGuE-WhItE-DrAgOn. **

**You guys all give me such great feedback and it's such a pleasure reading your comments. I look forward to hearing from you guys with every chapter! **

**As usual, a huge thank you to the people that are just reading this. **

**Thank you all for reading!**


	7. A Rocky Start

**As promised, this is the start of something new! And someone does start dating… Hmm I wonder who? **

* * *

Kira and Lacus froze, too stunned to even blink. Did they... Did they really just do that?

"Ho-hold it guys. You're gotta be kidding me." Kira interrupted. Athrun and Cagalli who were still shooting each other arrogant glares, turned to him.

"Oh no Kira. I'm dead serious." Cagalli frowned.

"Same here. It seems to me that someone needs to learn a lesson in head deflation." Athrun added.

"But... guys. You can't seriously mean that." Lacus urged. Athrun and Cagalli both nodded in finality.

Lacus sighed sadly, along with Kira. "Well, it's a pretty vague bet then. Let's at least make some rules, okay?" Kira suggested. If they were going to try to tear each other's pride to shreds, they may as well have some limits.

"Sounds fine. Let's a piece of paper so we can write these down." Cagalli said, reaching for her notebook. All four of them sat on the floor.

"Okay, first of all, time limits." Kira started. "You guys can't string this along forever."

"But that's not fair." Athrun protested. "I take more classes then her. I'll have less time to meet people."

Cagalli snorted. "Please. If anything, you'll see more people that you're familiar with. It makes things EASIER for you. I'll be seeing complete strangers."

"Fine." Lacus interrupted. "Forget that for now. Set a time length."

Athrun and Cagalli spoke simultaneously…. Only very different amounts of time. Athrun had said "two months" and Cagalli had said "a week"

"We'll pass on that too…" Kira sighed, noting down to come back to it. "Next, how are we going to monitor this?"

The conversation continued for a good hour, with suggestions, interruptions, protests, demands, compromises and finally, disgruntled give-ins. The end product was something that all were able to say they were satisfied with: proof in the fact that all four names had signed the piece of paper at the bottom. Directly above their names, written in Kira's careful handwriting, were the terms that had been set:

* * *

The following rules will apply for the two week duration, for which Athrun and Cagalli's wager will be valid.

OBJECTIVE: The person that can secure a steady relationship, or at least appear to be embarking upon what could be a promising relationship, in the shortest time possible will be declared the winner.

1) The winner must be determined, within two weeks. NO EXCEPTIONS! _(The "two weeks" was written on top, after a number of scribbles, cross-outs and arguments)_

2) If by the end of two weeks, neither person has succeeded, or the judges determine that they are equal, then they are both considered losers. In such a circumstance, the judges will be allowed to dare their respective person. _(Kira and Lacus have draw smiley faces.) _

3) The judges will be Kira and Lacus, for Athrun and Cagalli, respectively._ (More smiley faces)_

4) The judges may not exchange information secretly to each other, regarding the person they are monitoring. _("Even if they are dating!" had been hastily added in Cagalli's handwriting and underlined several times by Athrun.)_

5) Judges are free to advise their respective person. _("In fact... they are encouraged" Had been added by a somewhat desperate Athrun, and Cagalli who though rolled her eyes, secretly supported this rule zealously)_

6) The contestants may not tell anyone about this bet, and may only speak of it to others involved. If either contestant violates this rule, they immediately forfeit the bet and consequently, lose. _("Of course this rule is no concern for the great Cagalli Yula Attha" had been scribbled beside this rule. A "Nor for Athrun Zala!" had also been tacked on)_

7) Participants may refuse a date at any time; however they may not walk out in the middle of a date.

8) Participants are not permitted to fake their feelings for the sake of winning this bet. They must genuinely have some feeling for the person with whom they are in a relationship, in order for it to count as a relationship. In other words, if you hate the person and are only sticking with them because you want to win... no dice. _("The judges can tell.. so don't try hiding it" had been added in Lacus' neat and flowery handwriting. "THAT'S RIGHT!" had been added by Kira, in capital letters.)_

9) NO SABOTAGE! _(Cagalli drew a frowny face)_

10) If any person who signs this paper violates any of the rules _(another frowny face),_ with the exception of rule number 6 (which has a separate penalty) they are punishable by a dare from each of the three other people who sign this paper.

11) Finally, for each date that a contestant goes on, they are required to report it to their judge, for analysis. Following this, they may or may not be requested to report the date to the rest of the group. _(There are marks around the last sentence, as both Cagalli and Athrun had struggled to cross it out.)_

12) The contest will begin at the start of Spring break, which lasts 2 weeks exactly. Preparations may be made prior to the start... however no dating or action may be taken until Spring break begins.

We hereby certify that we agree to these rules and are susceptible to the full extent of the punishments specified.

Mr.Kira Yamato and Mr.Athrun Zala as well as Ms.Cagalli Yula Attha and Ms.Lacus Clyne.

* * *

Cagalli stood up and stretched. "Sounds good to me. Personally I think the game would be a bit more fun WITH the sabotage, but whatever."

The three on the floor smiled lightly at her.

"So we all agree to these, right guys?" Kira checked.

"We signed the paper didn't we?" Cagalli retorted sarcastically. "Well I'm spent and need sleep, so get out of my house. Night guys!" She then proceeded to march off to her room, fully expecting them to show themselves out.

Athrun and Lacus blinked and stared. Kira chuckled and started to gather his stuff.

"What a productive study session this was..." Lacus joked lightly. "I can't wait for Spring break now!"

Suddenly Cagalli poked her head out of her room. "Hey! I expect you guys to have cleared out in an hour! And if I find ANY of you in my bed tomorrow with ANYONE's else's clothes on, I'll wring your neck!"

Athrun blinked, holding his briefcase in mid-air. Lacus stopped gathering plates. Kira stopped, just about to shove another binder into his bag. Then turned their head slowly, eyes locking as if secretly passing messages to one another.

And they made a mad dash for the door.

* * *

Athrun flopped back on the sofa. He and Kira had returned to their dorm, just after dropping off Lacus. Burying his head in his hands... he let out a tortured moan. Kira went to the fridge and took out a cup of yogurt, immediately starting to eat it.

"Kira, what the hell have I done! I can't do this!" He cried.

"Would you rather be at the mercy of Cagalli and her dare?" Kira questioned mirthfully. He wore a sloppy amused grin on his face. Athrun looked up with a glare.

"Don't mess around with me Kira. I'm completely screwed! I've never been on a date before!"

"Neither has she."

"What!" Athrun exclaimed in surprise.

"She hasn't really either. She's had offers... but she's too shy." Kira continued, with a spoon in his mouth. Taking a moment to swallow, he thought for a moment. "If anything, you've got the advantage."

Athrun raised a curious eyebrow. "Explain."

Chucking the now empty yogurt cup into the trash and tossing the spoon into the sink, he motioned for Athrun to follow him. Leading Athrun into his bedroom, he sat down in front of his computer and brought up a search window. Then, he typed in "Athrun Zala"

Athrun blinked. "What the hell? How is this supposed to help me?"

"Hold on." Kira mumbled. "Ah! Here it is!"

He clicked on a link, and suddenly a webpage popped up, titled "Athrun Zala fans!"

Athrun almost fainted and Kira got up to allow him to sit down. "You... you're kidding me!" Athrun stared at the screen.

"Nope. Your fans made you a website. How nice, huh?" Kira teased. "Now... over there. Under members. Yeah click that. That's a list of all the current members. All of them would gladly go out with you. So... take your pick!"

Athrun turned his head and glared at Kira. "Are you insane? I don't know these people! I CAN'T JUST ASK THEM OUT!"

"But all of them like you. There's bound to be one that's somewhat sane." Kira encouraged. "Go on! Pick one! That one there! The newest member!" He grinned, slapping Athrun on the back.

Athrun stared weakly at the screen. "All right man... if you say so."

* * *

The last days before spring break progressed quickly. Despite not having a fanclub, Cagalli did also secure a date. Athrun was set to go out the first day of spring break, and Cagalli shortly after. Initially thinking he had the upper hand, Athrun approached the situation calmly... however soon discovered that it wasn't half as easy as he thought it would be.

* * *

Lacus picked up her cell phone. "Hello?" She could hear nothing but muffled noises and someone laughing hysterically. Frowning, she moved to hang up when suddenly...

"No! No.. it- it's me. Kira" He struggled out, between gasps and fits of laughter. In the background she could hear Athrun pleading with Kira to hang up. "c-Call the meeting. All four of us... Cagalli's house. Ath-Athrun's date.. we-we're sharing!"

"Umm... Okay sure." She answered uneasily. Something about what she had just heard... certainly sounded suspicious. Hanging up, she dialed Cagalli's number.

* * *

Cagalli taped the couch impatiently, while Lacus checked the clock. Suddenly the door burst open to reveal a Kira who, was apparently still laughing to hard to walk or function properly, and a very tired Athrun.

Well, how was it?" Lacus urged eagarly, pressing for details.

"A NIGHTMARE." Athrun moaned, collapsing onto the sofa. "I need aspirin. And a lot of drugs."

"You ARE too picky. She couldn't be THAT bad." Cagalli frowned. Athrun opened an eye and gave her a tired look.

"Kira... tell her." He motioned to Cagalli with his head.

"No way man." Kira was still laughing hysterically. "You tell it soo much better then I do."

Athrun frowned. "All right then. Long story short? Within 10 minutes she was putting our NAMES together."

"WHAT!" Lacus and Cagalli both exclaimed in surprise.

"_Yeah..."_

* * *

**_A Few Hours Ago…_**

"Hi!" The girl greeted cheerfully, waving at Athrun with a bright smile on her face.

"She doesn't seem so bad." Athrun though... "Rather perky..."

"I'm Taylor!" She cheered. It seemed like this girl was permanently happy.

"Cool. I'm Athrun." He offered his hand and shook hers. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Uh huh. I know. I've seen you around campus, soooo I joined your fanclub! What's your last name?" She smiled.

"Huh?" Athrun blinked.

"What's your last name?" She repeated.

"Umm... Zala." He smiled, apprehensively.

"Zala... wow that's an interesting one huh? A lot more exotic then Taylor."

"Taylor?" Athrun blinked. "I'm sorry, I must have misunderstood. I thought Taylor was your first name."

"It is." She nodded happily.

"But you just said-"

"My name is Taylor Taylor." She explained.

"Taylor is your... first AND last name?" Athrun asked... unsure whether or not this girl was joking.

"Not exactly." She replied. Athrun breathed a sigh of relief. So he did just get it wrong.

"Taylor's my middle name too." She added. Athrun's froze.

"P-Pardon?"

"I got my middle name from my grandma and her name was Taylor too."

"So your full name... is-"

"Taylor Taylor Taylor! Pleased to meet ya!" She smiled, saying it with more spirit than Athrun would think possible. "But... if we were to get married...I'd be Taylor Taylor Zala." She winked.

Athrun's eyes widened in horror. What on earth had he gotten himself into!

* * *

"And THEN... because of rule #7, I wasn't allowed to run for my life, as I spent another 5 hours with her. By the first hour I knew her family tree. By the next, she had added me and our potential "children" to it. This includes names." Athrun moaned, still collapsed on Cagalli's couch. Meanwhile, Cagalli and Lacus were rolling with laughter on the couch. Kira was convulsing with laughter on the floor.

"So then, "Lacus began, wiping tears from her eyes. "I'm assuming that she's not going to be your steady relationship?"

Cagalli and Kira began laughing again promptly. Athrun glared at them weakly.

"I'd rather preserve my sanity, then win a bet. Even if Kira approved her, I'm not dating her again." He frowned. Kira stood up, thoroughly exhausted from laughing.

"But I DO approve her! I want you to go on a second date! Maybe she'll start suggesting names for the grandchildren." He joked, nudging Athrun's shoulder. Athrun, tired of the wise cracks, didn't respond. Kira sighed and moved on. "Okay, so Athrun's first date is a flop. Cagalli, how's it going with you?"

Cagalli eased out of her laughter slowly. "Haven't started yet. But I've got a date tomorrow."

Athrun's furrowed eyebrows were blocked from view by his hand. However Kira still shot him a quick glance.

"Okay. Maybe we'll be meeting tomorrow then?" He suggested.

"We'll see." Lacus answered.

_"We'll see..." _

* * *

**That's it for this week folks! I actually have written a one-shot that I plan to upload within a day or two, but for now… enjoy this!**

**Mmm this chapter was more or less just to pick on poor Athrun. But don't worry. Next chapter, Cagalli'll get her turn. I'm thinking I actually will start using actual characters from the series, to make it more interesting. Besides I can't think of too many "Taylor Taylor Taylor"s…**

**Thank you for reading this. Also, special thanks to my lovely reviewers from last chapter, and their awesome feedback:**

**Dinkus, Angee, RoGuE-WhItE-DrAgOn, XxBeyndTheCloudSxX, White Scribe, leann, theravenx, Digital-Dragon-Master, KiraFreedom, blackcyra, clumsy kelli, ANONYMOUS, daisukechibi, MyouseiSeed, jenniferseedlover, chidori-san, Crazy-Destiny, Susan, RabidRabbit, animemistress419, LastImpression20, misfit270, koalialolao, gseedlover, lulu, strawberriez, peachy, mariad, stuntsheep, asga, xoxoanimeluber, and kura52 (Who I send my deepest apologies to, for typing your name incorrectly in my last chapter's acknowledgements). Really, really sorry about that one. I was rushing to get the chapter up.) **

**So… until next week… or my one-shot if for some odd reason you want to read that. IT IS an Athrun&Cagalli fic and it has nothing to do with this story though. But check it out anyways!**

**Thanks again readers! **


	8. Another Day, Another Date

**Hello all! This chapter is _gasp_! One day late! I guess my prose wasn't so periodic this time around. Sorry… But you'll be glad to know that the extra day was used to touch up this chapter and present you with the best writing my head could come up with! But I digress… onwards for now!**

* * *

Cagalli strolled down the street, dressed casually in dark blue jean capris and a brown jacket. Taking a right turn, she found herself in a park and in front the bench, where she was supposed to meet her date. Seating herself comfortably in the middle, her thoughts wandered to the events of last night. 

After Athrun oh-so-generously shared what happened with his date, they hung out at her apartment for a bit longer. The issue of the bet never came up, until Kira and Lacus stood up to leave.

"We'll see you guys later. Good luck with your date tomorrow Cagalli!" Lacus encouraged.

"Yeah, may you not get a weirdo." Kira joked, patting Athrun on the back. Athrun shot him a glare. About 10 minutes after Kira and Lacus left, Athrun got up as well.

"I should get going too." He said casually. Cagalli nodded.

"Aren't you going to wish me luck?" She grinned.

Athrun looked at her and blinked. "I'm your competitor. I don't want you to do well."

"Well that's true too. All right then, fine." Cagalli laughed happily and shrugged. Athrun smiled at her.

"Yeah. If you had luck... then I'd lose." After a pause, he muttered a few words under his breath. Then gave her a brief wave, and left. Cagalli stood for a moment... stunned. She wasn't exactly sure what he had said... if it was relevant, or if she was supposed to hear it. But she could swear that it sounded something like...

"In more ways then one..."

* * *

Athrun woke up to the sun blaring it's light into his bedroom. Rubbing his eyes, he dragged himself into the bathroom and took a shower. Then after getting dressed he wandered into the kitchen, where he found a note written by Kira. 

'_Gone out with Lacus for the day. See you later.'_

Athrun smiled. They certainly were moving fast... then again technically that had known each other for over a year. Remembering the issue of dating, he felt a headache springing on him, a remnant of last night's date with Taylor Taylor Taylor. Groaning, he hurried over to the medicine cabinet, only to find it devoid of any sort of aspirin or pain medication.

"Guess I'll have to buy some." Frowning, he grabbed his jacket and headed out the door. Checking his watch he noted the time in his head. "10:30... Cagalli must be on her date by now... I wonder how it's going."

He left out a slight sigh. After what he said last night, he had been slightly troubled. It had really just popped out of his mouth. After the words sprang forth, he felt mortified, yet somehow relieved?

Lately, aside from the whole bet thing, for some odd reason the idea of Cagalli dating had bothered him a bit. Not that he had a right to. She was his friend for goodness sake. But for the entire time now, that he had known her… well she hadn't dated. So he should be happy for her, if she really does find someone that she...she...

Loves.

Ugh. Stepping out of the building, he drudged down the street and forced such negative thoughts out of his head.

_"It's a nice day. Think of nice thoughts... happy thoughts. That tree is nice. Oh and look at that sky! The clouds are so... fluffy. Uh.. yeah. And those daffodils are so...yellow. Like her hair. Oh shit. Uh..."_

* * *

Cagalli continued contemplating all possible combinations of what Athrun had said. Because what she thought he said... couldn't be what he actually said. Could it? 

"In more ways then one...Umm how about 'I hope you have fun!'. No that's stupid. He said that he was my opponent. Why would he want me to have fun?"

"Um, excuse me?"

A polite voice interrupted Cagalli's incoherent mumbling. Looking up sharply, she found herself facing who appeared to be a very nice, honest and friendly guy. He had dark blond hair, that was abundantly streaked with brown, about the same length as Kira's... a bit shorter maybe. And striking dark blue eyes. Interesting color combination, but hell it looked pretty good.

"Ex-Excuse me. Are you Cagalli?" He asked seemingly shakily.

"Mm hm." She nodded and stood up to shake his hand. "And you must be...?"

"Maxwell." He finished politely. "But people just call me Max."

Cagalli regarded him for a moment. "I don't suppose... your last name is Maxwell too?" He blinked at her.

"Um... no. No it isn't." He answered with a slightly bewildered expression on his face.

"Great. It's good to meet you Max." Cagalli smiled brightly and let out a sigh of relief. So far so good. They began walking together, down the cobblestone path. "So what are we going to be doing today?" Cagalli inquired. She looked beside her to find...nothing. "Wha-?"

Looking down she saw a fallen Max, a few steps behind her. "Sorry." He muttered sheepishly. "I'm sort of clumsy. I fall a lot. Sorry."

Cagalli smiled sympathetically. "It's fine. Don't sweat it. I'm pretty clumsy myself sometimes."

Max lifted himself off the ground and brushed off his pants. "Thanks." He mumbled, clearly rather embarrassed. Cagalli smiled.

_"He's kinda cute...I guess. The way he smiles remind me of someone…"_

"Well to answer your question, we're going roller-skating." He grinned.

* * *

Athrun walked into the pharmacy, still looking at random things and complimenting them in his head. After walking over to the aisle where the aspirin was, he picked up a box and began walking towards the counter. 

_"What a ... nice font the box designers used to print the ingredients for the aspirin. It's awesome-"_ Suddenly his thoughts were violently interrupted when he collided head first into a worker.

"Ow!" Landing on the floor, she promptly dropped the large box of tissue paper that she was on her way to stock. Athrun stumbled back and blinked.

"Oh Jeebus I'm sorry. Here let me help you with..." He trailed off as she looked up at him.

_"Red short hair... and violet eyes? She's pretty cute..."_

"It's okay." She accepted his hand and stood back up, reaching for the carton. Athrun turned quickly towards it.

"It's fine. I'll get that." He offered, picking it up.

"Oh. Thank you Mister?..." She inquired subtly. Athrun sighed slightly; remember how Cagalli had also mistaken him for someone considerably older at first.

"Athrun. My first name is Athrun. Last name not needed." He replied with a grin. She blinked at him.

"Okay. I'm Lunamaria. But most people just call me Luna. And I'd shake your hand, but you're carrying my carton." She smiled. "Any way I can repay you for the favor?"

Athrun glanced at her. He was tempted to just ask her out now... she seemed normal enough. And time was running out… two weeks was not a lot of time! Must less for a relationship to develop… But hell, asking now would not only would that be much too forward, but she was just being friendly. Right? So what are the chances?

"Yeah." Athrun nodded. "You can ring up this aspirin for me." He explained, stopping for a moment to steady the carton against a shelf and his knee, so he could hand her the aspirin with one hand and a $10 bill. Luna smiled.

"Sure thing." She walked towards the cash register and returned moments later, after Athrun had placed the box where she had told him to. "Your change, receipt and aspirin are in the bag." she explained sociably, handing it to him.

"All in one package." Athrun grinned. "And I half expected it to be gift-wrapped."

"Maybe next time." Luna grinned, playing along with the joke. "See you later Athrun."

Athrun bid her a brief wave and exited the pharmacy. "So there are more normal people in the world... good to know."

Turning the corner, he began walking towards the park...

* * *

Kira sat on Lacus' couch with her staring at her while she read. He legs were propped up on a cushion and he was leaning forward on the couch, with his head turned towards her. Studying her intently, he hadn't moved for a good half hour. Lacus flipped a page on her book, then took a quick glance up. 

"Kira... don't tell me you have absolutely nothing to do." She sighed, looking up from the text she has been perusing, finding it extremely difficult to concentrate with him staring at her.

"No, not really." He shrugged.

"Can't you find something to do?" She pleaded light-heartedly.

"Sure." He grinned. "I'm watching you."

She sighed. "Corniest...line...ever."

"Well you can't just invite me over then not give me something to do. You're the host. You're supposed to keep me from getting bored." He joked.

Lacus glanced at the clock. "Cagalli's on her date?"

Kira blinked, and checked his watch. "Yeah I guess."

"Let's go out for some food." Lacus smiled, pulling Kira off the couch.

* * *

Cagalli stood beside Max, staring at the roller rink. To her surprise and relief, it wasn't that crowded... on the other hand... looking down she smiled lightly. 

Okay technically, she wasn't standing beside Max. Though she had been able to put on her skates and do a few laps without much problem, Max seemed to have a trouble with just... standing. Cagalli began to wonder why he even suggested roller-skating when it was clear that he was more or less completely incapable of doing anything on wheels.

He looked up at her and smiled sheepishly. "I'm so sorry. I mean... I think its just nerves. I'm usually not this bad. Really..."

Cagalli looked at his skeptically. She found it hard to believe that anyone could be this clumsy purely from nerves. He seemed to have a pretty hard time just getting here, without falling every other second. Usually he just fell on his face, but a few times, while reaching out for something to stop his fall, he had grabbed onto her rather suddenly.

Cagalli offered him a hand. "Here. Hold onto me to steady yourself." Max looked up at her and broke into a wide smile.

"Why... thank you very much."

* * *

Athrun passed by the roller rink, glancing casually to see who was in there. After leaving the pharmacy, he didn't feel the urge to compliment any object in sight, inanimate or not. Taking a quick glance, his eyes caught view of who appeared to be Cagalli. He smiled and was about to walk over to say hello, when he realized that this meant she was on her... date. 

As in confirming his thoughts, he watched her smile gently and offer a hand to a fallen guy beside her, then resume skating around holding hands. A subconscious frown began to creep up on his face. He continued walking hurriedly... then paused at the park entrance.

"I'm just going to... admire the greenery." He insisted, and took a turn into the park.

* * *

Lacus and Kira sat down at a café, that was suspiciously near the park, and ordered drinks. 

"So.. technically we're not supposed to be doing this right?" Kira clarified. Lacus nodded.

"So we won't tell. Okay?" she answered. He nodded back.

"Yeah…."

* * *

Cagalli continued to instruct Max, growing more and more confident in her theory that he had no idea how to skate at all. She was skating backward, so he could move forward and face her at the same time. 

"Left... right... left... right..." She repeated rhythmically. He tried to move accordingly, but seemed to have the coordination of a drunken headless chicken.

Suddenly, Cagalli felt a massive shift in weight and felt herself falling back. "No Max! Steady yourself! Steady!"

Too late. She found herself completely tangled with him. Though she wasn't hurt, she found herself in a rather awkward position, and his hands in a place where she certainly did not want them to be. Scrambling up, she tried to shake off her blush and offered him a hand. Laughing, he took it but promptly pulled her back down, once more taking the opportunity to grope her waist.

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING YOU BASTARD!" Cagalli protested furiously. "GET YOUR HANDS OFF ME!"

"Sorry! I'm clumsy!" He insisted. Cagalli glared furiously at him, barely supressing the urge to kick him in the groin and storm away. But that would count as walking out on a date, which by the rules... wasn't allowed.

"I'm going to get a drink. Practice yourself." She spat out coldly. Seething with rage, she stampeded over to the concession stand where she found...

* * *

Athrun watched the scene unfolding before him carefully. It appeared that Cagalli's date was quite a klutz, falling over her every 5 seconds. Worst of all, Cagalli helped him up every time and continued. Did she ENJOY it or something? What the hell was going on? Turning to buy a drink, he happened to miss her ranting and turned around to face a very stunned Cagalli. 

"Athrun? What are you doing here?" She asked curiously. He waved the drink in his hand.

"Having fun?" He inquired innocently, with a slight bitter tone that Cagalli did not fail to catch.

"Hell no." She frowned. "This guy's a total creep. He says he's a klutz but he just keeps groping me!"

"Then tell him to stop!" Athrun snapped rather shortly. For some reason watching her little date, had made him much more then a little angry. Cagalli stared at him.

"What the hell is your problem! I haven't even said spoken 2 sentences to you and you're already getting short with me!" She furiously demanded.

"I don't know. I don't know! Okay! But if you're just going to rant about him they just-" He was cut off suddenly when Cagalli turned around and stormed back to Max. He watched her take his hand again and continue skating. Turning, disgustedly, he began to exit the park.

"What the hell is she thinking?" He muttered. "I had to survive Taylor Taylor Taylor, but it's not like-" He froze suddenly and looked back at Cagalli, who was desperately trying to support a tipping Max. Realization hitting him, his eyes widened slightly.

"She...she can't walk out. Those… those DAMN RULES."

* * *

Cagalli stormed back, in an even worse mood then before. What the hell was Athrun's problem? Was he still mad about his date yesterday? Taking Max's hand, she began to skate again, yet had barely gone 2 minutes when he tried to topple on top of her again. 

In the past, he had reached out and grabbed her arm, her shoulder, her hip, or if they had fallen, his hand might be on her leg. That was bad enough. But suddenly... it looked like he was trying to grab her chest...

Shrieking, she lost control of her barely controlled temper and furiously threw her drink at him, then proceeded to chase him at full speed. Surprisingly, he bolted and begun skating at an alarmingly fast pace.

"I knew he was faking it." She muttered, not letting up, but he was much faster then she had even though: certainly better than average. She saw him turn the corner... about to leave the skate park. Cagalli desperately chased him harder, desperate to get her hands on him... but it looked like he was going to get away.

When suddenly... Cagalli saw a fist come flying out and punch Max firmly in the face, knocking him back and rendering him more or les… unconscious. Shocked, Cagalli forgot to brake and rammed right into...

"Athrun!" She cried out. Regaining her sense and recovering form the shock, she frowned. "What are you doing! You just beat up my date!"

Steadying her, Athrun looked at her and smiled. "I'm sorry... But he just came flying out of absolutely nowhere towards my fist. It was self-defense." He grinned. "And that is called?..."

"The theory of relativity." Cagalli finished, breaking into a grin. Athrun nodded, as if pleased.

"So you do listen to me. And please Cagalli, that guy was a sexual harasser in the making. Better stop him now..." He trailed off.

"Change of heart?" Cagalli inquired, wondering what had caused him 180 degree attitude change.

"Thought I'd help you out... since you can't help yourself. Sorry I forgot about rule 7... but this way you're not walking out. He's just... out." He joked. Cagalli laughed.

"Yeah I WASN'T enjoying that, okay?" She punched his shoulder. Athrun nodded.

"Ice cream?"

"Sounds good." Stepping over the crumpled heap (aka, Max) on the ground, Cagalli removed her skates and put her shoes back on, then followed Athrun out for ice cream.

* * *

Kira and Lacus sat in the outdoor cafe, sipping their drinks while chatting lightly, when suddenly Kira caught sight of Athrun, who appeared to be laughing and pleasantly enjoying the company of someone they couldn't make out clearly. 

"Hey! Athrun! Over here!" He called out. Athrun turned and began walking towards Kira and Lacus' table. However, Kira and Lacus' were taken aback when they saw who was standing behind Athrun and eating ice cream with him.

"Cagalli?..." Lacus trailed off. "I thought she..."

"Had a date?" Kira finished.

"Think it was Athrun?" Lacus mused.

"No... but something happened." Kira noted.

Cagalli and Athrun sat down next to them. "How's it going guys?" Cagalli started casually.

"Cagalli what happened to your date?" Lacus asked immediately, unable to hide her confusion and curiosity. Cagalli regarded Athrun for a moment and they exchanged a tired look.

"Athrun... aspirin." Cagalli sighed, holding out her left hand, while tilting her head down and covering her eyes with her right. Athrun smiled and reached into his bag, handing her the box. Kira and Lacus stared... still completely bewildered.

"This bet... is really taking its toll on you guys, huh?" Kira grinned. Athrun and Cagalli nodded weakly.

"Cagalli's date habitually groped her." Athrun explained, still chuckling a bit. Kira and Lacus blinking in disbelief.

"Wha-What happened to him?" Lacus questioned.

"He's out..." Athrun grinned. Kira burst out laughing, realizing immediately what had happened. Lacus who took a moment longer, joined in Kira's laughter as soon as it hit her.

Meanwhile, Cagalli tapped Athrun's shoulder. "Athrun... what is this?"

she raised an eyebrow, pointing to the box.

"Aspirin?" Athrun replied slowly, unsure of what she meant. Upon glancing at what Cagalli was pointing to, his eyes widened. On the box, written in neat, but hurried handwriting was a phone number.

"Luna?..." He blinked, studying the number in disbelief.

"Oooohhhh." Cagalli teased. "Luna eh? Next date?" Athrun looked up at her.

"Uh... I guess." He stammered, suppressing a blush.

"There's another gala in a few days." Lacus reminded. "AND, because both Kira and Cagalli are on the Dean's list now," she started, stressing certain words. "Both can come! Why don't you take this girl? Luna?"

Kira looked hesitantly at Lacus, squeezing her hand slightly under the table. Lacus squeezed it back reassuringly. She then gave him a look. Luckily, neither Cagalli nor Athrun noticed, as both seemed lost in thought.

"Sounds fine." Athrun nodded.

* * *

**So! That's Cagalli's date. As for the outdoor cafe scene, well I'll leave you to decide what Kira and Lacus could be worried about, or what Athrun and Cagalli are thinking about.**

**Next chapter: Athrun asks Luna out, and Cagalli brings ? to the gala. Here's a hint. I think I'm going to start using actual characters. **

**I'm not really sure how this came out... ask me in a few days and I'll tell you. Sorry this chapter came a day later then expected, but I've been dreadfully busy the past few days. Originally, ugh you don't even want to KNOW how this chapter looked. I really took this thing to the meat grinder for editing. **

**Ahem so anyways! I was absolutely ecstatic upon seeing the reviews for the last chapter. A lot of you grew somewhat fond of "Taylor Taylor Taylor." **

**Unfortunately, Taylor will not be reappearing in the story. Athrun would have a heart attack. The same goes to Max. Both Taylor and Max were created for the sole purpose of scaring the bejeebus out of Athrun and Cagalli on their first dates. And at this point I don't plan on creating any more characters. **

**Thank you to my reviewers since my last chapter! (Some of you didn't actually review for chapter 7... but much thanks anyways. Heh)**

**XxBeyndTheCloudSxX, asga, peachy , chidori-san, kura52, Pickles21, Angee, gseedlover, KiraFreedom, mariad, animemistress419, Digital-Dragon-Master, koali alolao, Susan, Tap-chan, ANONYMOUS, Crazy-Destiny, Lacus Clyne, Cutee, Lacus chan, clumsy kelli, im not telling, MyouseiSeed, jenniferseedlover, SAT Y203 Hope Gundam, Guest, Ayome, blackcyra, yin vs yang, Kikgo, KiraTatashi, Michiyo Hikari, Ivory Nightshade, Dark Hurricane, FormerAurora, laku, TwoWing2Fly, tha lil' angel and thunder sister. **

**All your thoughts and ideas are much appreciated. Until next week!**


	9. Turning Tables

**Another week, Another chapter. This thing is pretty long, and feels a bit rushed, but I think I'm happy with how it came out. Last time I left off with Athrun with a date for the gala, and Cagalli with… no one? Uh oh. A lot of you had some great guesses, as to who her date would be. Alas, no one got it! (Although a few people were one step ahead of me…) Confused? What to know what the heck I'm talking about? (I assure you that I AM in my right mind) **

**Read on!**

* * *

Lacus and Kira pounded on the door to Cagalli's apartment. After another good 10 minutes, frustrated, Kira began kicking the door as Lacus stood by patiently. They'd been doing this for a good half hour now, all to no avail. They knew Cagalli was in there, they knew she could hear them, she just wouldn't open the damned door! 

"Dammit Cagalli, open the door or I'll break it down!" Kira threatened.

Nothing. Lacus sighed and walked over to a potted plan at the end of the hallway. Kneeling down, she parted a few leafy branches and thrust her hand into the pot. Kira stared at her.

"What are you-?" He was cut off when he saw her produce a key. The key to Cagalli's apartment to be precise. "How long have you known that thing was there?" he asked, his eyebrow twitching with annoyance.

"The whole time. I just wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt. For future reference, she always keeps a key in that plant, in case she forgets hers." Lacus explained calmly, inserting the key into the lock and opening the reluctant door. Stepping into her apartment, Cagalli was nowhere in sight. "Maybe she really isn't here..." Lacus pondered, tapping her chin in thought.

"No chance." Making a beeline for Cagalli bedroom, Kira flung open the door and attacked the lump on the bed, hidden by covers, blankets and a well anchored pillow.

"ARGH dammit guys! Why can't you leave me alone for 2 seconds!" Cagalli howled, shoving Kira off the bed.

"Because we know you're not sleeping! Cagalli why aren't you going to the Gala tonight!" Kira demanded. Lacus stood at the doorway quietly absorbing the situation. About an hour ago, they'd received a call from an unusually quiet Cagalli, mumbling a weak excuse for skipping her first gala.

"I don't feel like it!" Cagalli hollered back.

"Cagalli, it's going to be your first gala since you're gotten onto the Dean's list. You can't miss THIS ONE!" Kira protested.

"Why can't I!"

"Why SHOULD you!"

"That's enough." Lacus interrupted. "You guys are arguing like 3 year olds. Granted it's rather amusing, but still un-necessary. Now Cagalli, you need a date, yes?"

Kira blinked in confusion, and turned towards Cagalli, who was shuffling her feet rather nervously and keeping her head down.

"I don't NEED one..."

"But you don't have one?"

"No..." She admitted reluctantly.

"That's fine." Lacus insisted. "It's not like bringing someone is a requirement. If anything it's a relief! One less person to dodge in the crowd, one less person for the cooks to cater to, one less coat to take up closet space, everyone wins! It's NO BIG DEAL. And just because Athrun has one and you don't, doesn't mean he's one up on you."

Cagalli cringed at the mention of how Athrun had a date "He's just going to rub it in my face. But hell I don't think I ever want to date again after meeting Max! I'm surprised he's recovered from Taylor!"

"He barely has." Kira laughed. "But that's besides the point. So what if he has a date now, huh? It's not like you can't find one. Besides, the gala's more important then the bet now, right?"

Cagalli gave another reluctant nod.

"Then it's settled!" Lacus smiled. "You can get a ride with me and Kira. And you won't go with anyone." Lifted her head, Cagalli looked at Lacus, then Kira.

"Yeah... thanks guys."

* * *

Athrun stared at the phone number, clearly written on the box in what appeared to be a Sharpie marker... To call or not to call? 

On the one hand, he told everyone he would call.

On the other hand, he didn't know if he wanted to... but if he kept dodging the idea of dating, he'd lose the bet for sure. Plucking the cordless phone off its base, he punched in the numbers.

"Hello?" A familiar voice answered.

"H-Hello?" Athrun questioned testily. "Lu-Lunamaria? From the pharmacy?"

"Yes... Oh! Athrun, right! Haha I guess you found my number after all!" She laughed happily. "I'm sorry. I don't know what got into me. Spur of the moment, I guess. What's up?"

"I need a date." Athrun blurted out.

Silence...

"Eh!" Luna replied incredulously. "Wow you sure cut to the chase huh?..."

Athrun laughed nervously. "It's... a gala. Tonight actually. If you have plans, I'd totally understand. I'm sorry about the short notice but..." He trailed off. He was sorry, really for causing her trouble. But something inside him had stopped him from calling... until today, when he'd heard that Cagalli wasn't going after all.

"Sure." Luna replied. "Formal wear?"

"Yeah." Athrun replied quickly, snapping out of his thoughts. "Thanks a lot Luna. I don't know you well at all, but... I'd like to get to know you." Somehow, Athrun got the idea what Luna was smiling.

"Same here. I'll see you later then." She replied softly.

"Ye-Yeah. Seven at your house... uh... what's your address?" He asked, jotting it down quickly. "Okay. Later then."

Replacing the phone back to it's base, he looked at the clock. He had a few hours... what he was going to do with those few hours he had no idea. Fingering the first speed dial button on his phone for a moment, he frowned.

"Maybe... I should... not. It'll probably be better this way." He sighed, then stood up to get a drink.

* * *

Cagalli sat in the backseat of Kira's car, leaning forward to talk to Lacus and Kira. True to their word, it wasn't awkward. Tonight was about the gala. About her being a successful student. Not the bet. So who cares about dates? 

She'd almost convinced herself. She really had. She's gotten there fine, and walked into the building fine, and sat down at her table with Kira and Lacus fine too, until...

Athrun showed up. With his date... Rising to shake hands and introduce herself, his date beat her to it.

"Hi, I'm Luna. It's good to meet you." She smiled. Cagalli blinked. Something about this girl... was really nice. She seemed very friendly and easy to be around.

"I'm Cagalli. How's it going?" Cagalli smiled back, forgetting the slight twist in her gut that she felt, when she initially saw her and Athrun together. Settling down, she continued the conversation.

* * *

Athrun twisted his hands nervously. He thought she wasn't coming. He thought she said she wasn't coming. But well... it's fine that she's here too. Just... unexpected. He'd been worried she wouldn't like Luna. But she does. They're getting along pretty well... 

So why am I somehow... disappointed?

Just then, a teacher tapped Athrun on the shoulder and motioned him to come and start walking around, and talking to people. Athrun nodded. Taking one last look at the two happily chatting girls, he walked away.

* * *

Luna watched Athrun leave with a look of utter bewilderment. 

"Where's he going?" She wondered aloud.

"Oh, he has to walk around and talk to important people from important places." Cagalli joked.

"It's the same with Lacus." Kira added, returning to his seat. "I got tired of walking around with her everywhere, so she told me to sit down. She'll be back in a second."

"Oh..." Luna commented thoughtfully, more as a sound than actual speech. "I'll... um.. I guess I'll go, join him?" She asked, not sure of what to do.

"If you want." Cagalli shrugged. Luna nodded and stood up to follow Athrun. Kira watched her integrate into the massive crowd and turned to Cagalli.

"How you doing?" He inquired caringly.

"Hm? I'm fine." Cagalli responded. "She's nice... but honestly I thought we'd be more busy."

Kira laughed. "Well yeah, same. But Lacus explained that as first-timers, we're really not expected to do much except show up. Which you almost didn't do..." He teased. Cagalli frowned.

"I didn't want to!" She insisted, stubbornly.

"Well do you regret it now?"

"I'm bored out of my mind. I don't regret free food. I regret not bringing something to entertain myself with. Because as weird as you are Kira, you can only keep me entertained for so long, and this is going to be a long night." Cagalli sighed, leaning back in her chair and crossing her arms.

Kira laughed again. "Really. The more we come to these, the more stuff we'll have to do. Enjoy the peace while you can." He turned at the sound of his name. "Oh, that's Lacus. Be right back Cagalli."

She nodded and watched him leave as well. Sighed, she was about to stand up and wander out to the gardens, when someone approached her...

* * *

Athrun smiled politely, and nodded like a robot programmed to respond to the same inane and dull questions by the same faces over and over and OVER again. Luna was following him, but he still felt ridiculously bored. His only momentary fun was when he bumped into Yzak and Dearka again, who once more, commented on his date, who he had to admit was a date. Yet something had bugged him when they bid farewell again. Dearka and turned to him and raised a curious eyebrow. 

"What happened to the blonde?"

"Huh? Cagalli? She's here." Athrun responded, careful to make sure Luna was out of earshot.

"Oh... not with you?" He clarified. Athrun nodded.

"Wow, you lost her pretty fast. Too bad... you looked cuter with her." He noted, more to himself then to Athrun. Athrun stood, speechless.

"Dearka..." He began threateningly.

"Just commenting!" He threw up his hands in defense. "See you later Athrun."

And that was the last thing Dearka said to him. Athrun threw a curious glace towards their table, and spotted Kira leaving... and some other guy approaching the table.

* * *

Luna frowned slightly, taking a sip from her drink. She'd been following Athrun around the whole time, but really she hadn't talked to him, and in general, had done very little. 

Stealing another glance at Athrun, she noticed that he seemed to be starting intently at something. Following his gaze, she found that it was directed towards their table, where a young man she didn't recognize was approaching Cagalli.

* * *

"Hello. You're looking pretty bored." The young man replied. Dressed formally, and relatively direct he was smiling at the half seated Cagalli, who has just started to rise. 

"You have NO IDEA..." Cagalli mumbled, averting her gaze to the floor.

"Actually I do. We've all been here before. I mean, we've all had the first boring party. And I've been watching you for a while now. Bet you wish you brought something."

Cagalli turned in surprise. "Ye-Yeah. I was just saying that to my brother..."

He laughed and extended his hand. "I'm Ahmed. You are?..."

She stared at his hand for a while, then took in and stood up. "Cagalli. Pleased to meet you."

* * *

Kira jogged over to Lacus, who in the course of about 10 seconds had gone from smiling and waving him over, to her mouth dropping open and staring at something behind him. He slowed to a stop as he neared her. 

"Lacus? Lacus! Something wrong?"

"Kira... do you know him?" Lacus questioned, her face still bearing a look of horrid confusion. Kira turned slowly.

"That guy with Cagalli? No. Do you?" he responded. Lacus shook her head, then slowly started nodding.

"Oh my g-... that's-"

* * *

"You're the editor of the school newspaper?" Cagalli repeated doubtfully. Ahmed nodded. 

"And your father is the editor of the city's newspaper?" She continued in the same tone. Another nod.

"Get real. I'm not falling for that one. The city's newspaper is one of the most well-known newspapers in the country, maybe the world. And the school newspaper is the largest extra-curricular activity in the school with over 30 percent of the student bodyinvolved. The chances that you being involved in either are-"

"Slim to none?" Ahmed finished.

"No. Just... none." Cagalli insisted.

"Is that so?" He raised a curious eyebrow. "Okay then, check the newspaper tomorrow. Both of them. I'll prove it."

Cagalli grinned. "Fine then. Just try it. And make it obvious. It can't be some dinky little fine print in the last page of the classifieds."

"Oh don't worry." He assured. "It'll be good."

* * *

Athrun held back the urge to stroll over, casually, break into the conversation, casually, and lead Cagalli away from the random guy. Casually. Suddenly, he felt a tug on his sleeve and looked down at a smiling Luna. 

"Something wrong?" She inquired politely. But hell, she was far from blind... or deaf. She knew what was wrong, and what he was staring at. She'd heard what Dearka had said, and the way Athrun looked at Cagalli. She hadn't talked with Cagalli enough to know how she felt... but watching Athrun was enough. Even if Athrun was horribly confused, it didn't take a telescope to see what was going on.

And as much as she liked him... far be it for her to interfere...

"Athrun?" She called again. He turned.

"Hm? What's up?"

"I'm going to go now. I just feel... out of place." She spoke hesitantly, noting the look of surprise on his face.

"Wait... Luna. I thought we were going to get to know each other..." He trailed off.

"I think I know you well enough. Go get her Athrun." She smiled encouragingly, then with a pat on the back, turned to go. "If you ever need more aspirin, or just some advice, you have my number! I'll take a taxi!"

And with a brief wave, she was gone. Athrun blinked in confusion. _Go get who? What?..._

Suddenly, he blinked a few times rapidly and turned in the direction of where Cagalli and that guy were: but they had already moved somewhere else...

* * *

Luna grabbed her coat from the coat check room and headed outside. Signaling for a taxi, she turned to her left at the sound of her name. 

"Luna? Leaving so soon?"

It was Kira, probably out for a walk with Lacus. Luna nodded.

"I can see it too guys. It's not really my business, since I don't know them that well... but Athrun's going to need some help."

Lacus laughed, amused by how blunt this girl was. "We know. We're working on it. Thank you though."

Luna nodded and climbed into her taxi.

"so then it's settled then?" Kira smiled.

"Yes. Of course." Lacus nodded. "We'll continue with the plan." She started walking back towards the building when suddenly Kira lagged behind. "Kira?"

"Hey Lacus..." He began.

"Yeah?"

"I think I'm nuts for saying this... these galas. Man I swear they just make me feel like I should..." he began mumbling again, his hand fiddling with his pockets and eyes poring into the ground. Lacus stood patiently.

"Quick and painless Kira. Is something wrong?"

He looked up at her with a determination and confidence that startled her at first. "Want to live together?"

Lacus blinked and stepped back in surprise. "Live... together?"

Kira nodded. "After all this is done... We can move in together somewhere."

Slowly a smiled swept across Lacus' face, which was then reflected onto Kira's.

"That sounds... wonderful."

* * *

Athrun stared at Cagalli and the still to him, random guy. Half the night has passed and she still had made no movement to bid this guy farewell. Nor had she shown any signs of discomfort. Did she... like this guy? 

Nervously looking at his watch again, he walked forward and tapped Cagalli's right shoulder.

"Dance?"

Cagalli looked at him in surprise, then looked behind him.

"Luna?"

"Gone."

Cagalli nodded, then smiled and gave Ahmed a brief wave, before stepping away with Athrun.

"Short date." Cagalli commented. Athrun shrugged.

"She just said some stuff and left. Too bad... she was really nice."

Cagalli stiffened and for some odd reason, this made Athrun smile a little.

"What about your date?" Athrun asked, trying to sound as casual as possible.

"Ahmed? He's not my date... I just met him here. But he's a cool guy, considering I haven't driven him insane yet." She laughed.

"You're not that bad Cagalli." He smiled, looking at her. "You're... you."

Cagalli looked up at Athrun and blinked. "Weirdo… hey anyone ever tell you that you have green eyes? Emerald green..."

Athrun raised an eyebrow. "And why are you looking at my eyes?" He grinned. Cagalli's eyes widened.

"Just... just s-saying." She stammered, hiding a blush. Awkward silence...

"Amber." Athrun spoke with finality. Cagalli looked at him curiously.

"Your eyes. They're amber."

* * *

The night had waned on... By the end of the night, Athrun ended up driving Cagalli home and Kira drove Lacus. Ahmed was... well gone. He seemed to have left early or something, because at some point, he had stopped by their table to say goodbye to Cagalli, and remind her to check the newspaper. 

After dropped off Cagalli, Athrun however, couldn't stop thinking about what had happened. Returning to his and Kira's dorm, Athrun found a message on the answering machine, from Kira, telling him that he was going to be spending the night at Lacus'. Too preoccupied to think much of it, Athrun plopped down on the sofa and immediately resumed brooding.

Cagalli and Ahmed. They looked happy today. Watching them, one might even say they looked.. ugh... cute.

Athrun's eyes grew dark, his mind clouded with thoughts. What was going on? Why was there this... feeling all of a sudden. Cagalli was... his friend. His very good friend. So the watching her be happy... he should be happy. He usually was. But this time around, it was different. Because...she's happy with Ahmed? But there's nothing wrong with him. Except that he was with Cagalli, and he..

_He's not me..._

Athrun jerked his head up, shaking his head in disbelief. He wasn't this type of person. And think about the situation. It just wasn't logical. He couldn't allow himself to be like this... at a time like this. On the other hand: he didn't know how to change it. Glancing at the phone, he hesitated for a moment then quickly snatched it up, entering a familiar number.

"Hello?" Kira answered the phone casually.

"Kira... I think... I think there's a problem."

Kira's eyes widened a bit, nodding his head sympathetically to Athrun's words, as if Athrun could see him. Lacus sat beside him calmly, fully aware of the situation. But Athrun couldn't exactly speak.

His sentences were broken, half finished or devoid of any logical thought. Athrun was... confused. And there was nothing he could do about it. In the end, the only coherent sentence Athrun had spoken was "The bet's off. I can't do this."

"Then you forfeit?" Kira questioned.

"Sure. That's fine. Anything's fine. I don't...don't care. There's no... reason... drive... Nothing... important. ...not... matters. Cagalli. She's...I think I. I think I..." Athrun reverted back to rambling, but Kira knew full well what he meant.

"Athrun? As your judge and coach, I'm going to advise you to hold out for a little. There's still no guarantee that Cagalli can do this either."

Silence on the other end of the line. Kira continued.

"The least you can do is go for a tie in the bet. Right?"

There was a long pause. Finally, Athrun's gentle voice simply spoke one word.

"Okay." and he hung up. Kira carefully dropped the phone back into its base and turned to Lacus.

"We can still do this."

* * *

**Ooooooooo Athrun's realized his feelings. (I think half of you are probably thinking "About bloody time...") Though he started a step ahead of Cagalli, it appears that his lead is lost and Cagalli has something good going for her. But what plans do Kira and Lacus have? And is Ahmed really connected to the newspaper?**

**Next chapter: Deliberate Daring. The bet comes to a conclusion. Who's the winner? And just what have Lacus and Kira been planning? With Athrun frozen in his feelings, can he pull this off? What will Cagalli do? Will she do it on time?**

**I'm actually just about done with this fic. For those of you with amazing memories, I think in the first chapter I mentioned how I had written the first two chapters, and the very last chapter together. So really I know exactly how this puppy's ending. stupid evil grin. Anyway, I think have about 3 or so chapters left, before this off. **

**In the meantime, I've been working on ideas for my next one. At first, I was thinking about continuing this fic, but then again, I know if I stretch this, sooner or later I'll be fresh out of ideas. And I've also got a relatively good idea for a new one too, so I'm thinking I'll do that, though nothing's set in stone yet.**

**Took the time to fill out one of those author quiz/interview thingys. It's currently posted on my user profile. **

**Now, the oh so very omni-important acknowledgements! All my reviewers:**

**Smoke-Angel, mariad, ninofchaos, animemistress419, jenniferseedlover, stuntsheep, KiraFreedom, Digital-Dragon-Master, dark conspiracy, Crazy-Destiny, ANONYMOUS, thunder sister, mattthemoonprincess, Susan, Two Wings to Fly, cotton-angel, Serenity, FormerAurora, MissKT, Angee, Cagalli Yula Athha, RoGuE-WhItE-DrAgOn, tha lil' angel, kura52, gseedlover, MyouseiSeed, Michiyo Hikari, Infinite Freedom, chidori-san, Ivory Nightshade, laku, koali alolao, clumsy kelli, peachy, Flyinangel777, asga, GaIa12GSD **

**Reviewers are loved immensely! Readers are very much appreciated!**

**Until next week, bye!**


	10. Deliberate Daring

**Well, the story's REALLY winding down now. Next chapter is the final chapter, but because I have a thing for even numbers, I'll probably throw in an epilogue. Then I have a one-shot I plan to throw up at some time, and I'll start a new story.**

**But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Without further ado, I present Chapter 10: Deliberate Daring**

* * *

Lacus took a deep breath, savoring the early morning air, light with dew but fresh as the new day. She smiled, stepping out of the supermarket holding a bag of groceries that contained eggs, milk, and bread and some jam, which she was on her way home with. Her thoughts wandered off in the direction of a certain boy that used to blush a lot, and still sort of did, who was currently, sleeping on her couch. 

Lacus glanced at the watch on her right wrist, certainly not she expecting him to be up. She always had been an early bird, and grateful that the local supermarket opened early... about 6:40am to be exact.

Stopping buy a stand to purchase some flowers, she turned and fumbled around to get a bill from her bag... then promptly dropped her groceries.

"There...There's no way..."

* * *

Athrun had been taking an early morning walk, unable to sleep well since the events of yesterday. About to head to a cafe to grab a quick coffee, he halted midstep and he caught a glimpse of some rather distinctive pink hair. He waved to her, but she didn't appear to notice... instead she... Dropped her groceries? What the-? 

Taking a quick look at the road to check for cars, he hurried over to help her.

"Lacus? Lacus!" He called, and watched as she slowly bent down and picked up a copy of the newspaper. "What's wrong? Did something happen?" Athrun finished, still unable to read the headline of the paper.

"Athrun... Did Cagalli say anything to you... did you hear anything. by any chance. Did you catch word of what they talked about?" She stumbled on her words, recovering gradually from shock. Athrun shook his head, now steadying the groceries he had re-gathered. Lacus passed the paper to his silently.

And Athrun dropped the groceries again.

* * *

Cagalli moaned and rolled over in bed. Somewhere off in the distance a phone was ringing... okay technically the phone right beside head on the bed stand was ringing but in her sleep filled state, it may as well have been miles away. Deciding to let her answering machine get it, she... made a huge mistake as only moments later the voice of her frantic brother thundered through the speaker. 

"CAGALLI! GET YOUR BUTT OUT OF BED RIGHT NOW AND TELL ME WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED LAST NIGHT!"

She shot up straight as an arrow and turned to her bedroom door. Moments later, instead of waiting for Cagalli to open the door, with his new found knowledge of the key hidden in the plant, a charging Kira splintered through her door.

"CAGALLI!"

"Kira calm down! NOW WHAT IN THE NAME OF ALL THAT'S HOLY COULD HAVE POSSESSED YOU TO BREAK INTO MY APARTMENT, WAKE ME UP AND YELL AT ME! IF ANYONE HAS YELLING RIGHTS-!"

"IT'S ME!" Kira hollered back.

Lacus stood patiently too the side, then handed Cagalli a newspaper that in bright bold letters had the following headline in capital letters:

"CAGALLI YULA ATHHA THINKS I'M A LIAR"

Then underneath:

"Obvious enough for you? Article continued in the school newspaper."

Cagalli's mouth dropped open and she fell backwards… Thank goodness she was still in bed.

"Athrun's gone to get a copy of the school newspaper. So what happened yesterday?" Lacus asked.

"Well uh... he said he was editor and stuff. I thought he was lying! And just… making up stuff! Like a boast!" Cagalli protested. Kira slapped his forehead with his palm.

"Cagalli even I could have told you who he was. How could you NOT know?"

She frowned. "But I heard you say you didn't know him."

"I didn't get a good look at him. From that distance he could have been anyone." Kira explained. "But just give me a decent look at his face and I would be able to tell..."

The doorbell rang and Lacus went to answer it, while Cagalli ushered Kira out of her room so she could get changed. Athrun entered Cagalli apartment and promptly thrust the school newspaper into Lacus' eager hands. The headline on this read:

"Dean's list student doesn't believe me who I am. - Article by the Editor."

Athrun flomped onto the couch and tilted his head back, closing his eyes as if suffering from a migraine.

"Shoot me now..." He muttered. Lacus hurried over to comfort him.

"Athrun... it's not that bad. I mean... so he's more forward. That doesn't mean that he's asked Cagalli out yet... nor has she accepted."

Kira stared speechless at the paper. Suddenly Cagalli stormed out of her room, further damaging that already horribly battered bedroom door. Lacus quickly shut up, while Athrun quickly regained composure. Snatching the paper out of Kira's hands, her eyes widened.

"What the hell... WHERE IS THIS GUY! I'M GOING TO KILL HIM!" She screamed. Kira shrugged.

"Probably at the school newspaper's office."

Cagalli immediately ran out the door disregarding the calls of Lacus and Kira. Athrun slumped back again.

"This is horrible..." He muttered, after she was safely gone.

"Athrun..." Kira started.

"No, no NO. Don't you _'Athrun...'_ me... you've had it easy! Random guys weren't declaring their love for Lacus on world renounced newspapers when you asked her out. Love of-"

"That's enough Athrun." Lacus spoke sternly. "Now make up your mind. If you feel that you can't go through with the bet anymore, or you've lost all will, then say so."

Athrun paused for a moment then opened his eyes and looked at them.

"I'll take the dare I guess..." He mumbled.

Kira blinked in disbelief. "Clearly you haven't heard about the time she dared Sai to out outside to the public gardens stark naked, and sing a rendition of "I'm a little teacup" while dancing the salsa and playing maracas... then get down on bending knee and propose to the oldest woman he could find, which was at the time a 78 year old woman taking a walk with her husband."

Lacus' eyes grew wide, and she cracked a smile. "You're kidding..."

Kira's grin stretched. "Nope. I love telling that story." He turned to Athrun whose face color resembled sea algae.

"O-okay then. Never mind. I suppose the dare is out of the question."

"Don't worry man." Kira smiled, patting Athrun jokingly on the back. "I promise that I won't make you do anything like that."

"But Cagalli and Ahmed are getting pretty close... I mean he's so damn _forward_." Athrun mumbled worriedly.

"I don't think they're moving fast enough, so that he'll ask her out before the bet ends." Lacus noted thoughtfully.

"Considering the bet ends in about 3 hours... I'd have to agree." Kira smiled.

Athrun lifted his head looked up at the two, their beaming faces urging him to press forward. He managed a weak smile. "Thanks guys..."

* * *

Kira and Lacus stepped into the hall, on their way to buy more groceries, leaving Athrun to wait for Cagalli to come back alone, so he could do some serious thought sorting. 

"Well that was fun." Kira grinned.

"Think they're suspicious?" Lacus wondered.

"Of us? Naw."

"Okay then. So now that we have that power, what should we do?"...

"Hmmm...Why don't we..."

* * *

Cagalli tore down the street, fuming. Since her picture was in the paper too, it seemed like just about everybody in the city was turning to look… no…. stare at her. Furiously, she kicked down the door into school newspaper's office, her eyes darting around on high alert. 

"WHERE. IS. HE!"

Several frightened administrators turned to look at her. One was even holding up a black folder portfolio as a shield.

"We... we don't know! A-Ahmed… He's on vacation!"

Cagalli glared.

"Really! It's the truth! He just phoned last night and told us to print something, sent it over and we printed it!"

Cagalli's eyes flashed dangerously. "You mean… you would print something just because he told you to! Without even LOOKING at it!"

"H-He's the EDITOR! We don't have a choice! It's our job! He'll b-be back though! By the time school starts! He'll be back! Oh gawd please don't hurt me!" She raised the folder a bit higher. A few people had ducked under the table.

"Dammit!" Cagalli kicked a chair across the room and tore open the door, leaving behind devastation not unlike that of a hurricane...

* * *

"I'm never stepping foot outside my apartment... EVER AGAIN!" Cagalli moaned, her face buried in a couch cushion. Lacus patted her back. 

"It'll die down. It's just the initial shock." She assured. Meanwhile, Kira was off to the re-reading the article for the hundredth time. Athrun watched Cagalli from across the room.

Suddenly, Kira nonchalantly glanced at his watch.

"Oh! Will you look at the time!"

Athrun looked at Kira. Cagalli lifted her head. Lacus hid her eyes…

"The bet's done! See? Let's see... none of you have anything going on?"

Athrun shook his head. Cagalli buried her head again.

"I lost..." She wailed.

"No no, not at all. You tied. So according to the rules..." Kira whipped out the document. "Lacus and I get to dare you guys."

Athrun's eyes widened. He had completely forgotten about that! No wonder they kept pushing him to hang in for a tie! But what were they planning?...

Krai rubbed his hands in anticipation. "Athrun, I dare you to ask someone out... by the end of the week. When classes starts." Athrun gaped at him. Kira knew perfectly well how he felt!

_If I'm going to ask someone out... There's only one person I want to..._

Lacus turned to Cagalli. "Cagalli, I dare you to go on a date with whoever next asks you out. Doesn't matter who it is, the next person that asks you out, you MUST accept."

Cagalli almost fainted. Athrun felt a lump gather in his throat. They MUST be joking...

Kira and Lacus smiled, clearly proud of what they had accomplished.

* * *

_A Few Hours Ago... In a very familiar hall._

"Why don't we...Just dare them to date each other? Isn't that what we were originally planning?" He wondered.

"Kira! That's much too obvious! Besides I have issues with that method now." Lacus protested.

"Oh?"

"Yes... imagine if you were forced to date someone. Even if you realized you had feelings, you wouldn't admit to it. They have to realize it themselves, and be coerced into it... which shouldn't be a problem. With a dare each, we're more then capable of holding that power."

"So then... I can dare Athrun to ask out 'someone he really cares about' by the first day we return to classes." Kira suggested.

"Good. That's good. We're not suggesting Cagalli, but this way he'll have to accept his feelings. As for me... I will force her to accept the offer of anyone who asks her out, eliminating the chance of rejection. I don't think Cagalli would reject him, but the girl may panic and say something that she doesn't mean."

Kira and Lacus grinned and nodded. "This WILL work!"

* * *

"Fine." Athrun sighed. "I resign myself to fate. After all, I don't have a choice, now do I? I accept your dare." 

Kira nodded, clearly satisfied. "Great!"

"Cagalli?" Lacus prodded. The poor blonde turned at her.

"Lacus... I thought you were my FRIEND..."

"I am. This is for your own good. Be happy YOU wouldn't be proposing to someone naked while dancing the tango in public." She chuckled.

Cagalli raised an eyebrow. "How do you know about that?... And it was the salsa, not the tango. You need two to do that." She smiled at the memory "All right then. I accept the dare too. I'm not backing out, I never do."

"Then it's settled. The bet's conclusion: WE WIN!" Kira grinned, with Lacus joining him in chanting the last two words. Athrun and Cagalli exchanged a look, and raising and eyebrow and crossing their arms.

_How long have they been planning this?..._

* * *

Athrun Zala walked down the halls towards the classroom, stoically. Classes had resumed and, as his oh-so-considerate best friend Kira kept reminding him... 

"You haven't finished the bet yet! What are you going to do! I gave you an entire WEEK! And you won't be rejected, you know that."

Athrun sighed and turned to him. "It's different Kira. I don't care whether she'll accept one date or not. There' more to it."

Opening the door, they waved and walked towards Lacus and Cagalli who were already standing by their desks. The four of them took their seats and began lightly chatting, until:

Ahmed walked through the door. Kira was the first to notice, and had no idea how to react. After noticing her boyfriend had apparently forgotten how to blink, Lacus followed his gaze then covered her mouth quickly, stifling a gasp. Athrun heard the almost inaudible gasp and gaped for a moment, before quickly switching the direction of his gaze. Cagalli observed the start chain reaction by her friends then, upon observing the catalyst, stormed over.

"YOU! WHERE have you been!"

"On vacation." Ahmed shrugged. "It was spring break... cut me some slack." Cagalli wrung her hands with frustration, when suddenly, Ahmed pulled her elbow.

"Um hey, could I talk to you for a second? Like... over there?" He stammered, pointing in the general direction of a corner. Lacus watched in horror. Athrun clenched his hands under his desk.

"It's like watching a train wreck..." Kira muttered. Yet the oblivious Cagalli nodded and followed. Athrun tensed slightly, but maintained a smile, while Kira and Lacus gave Athrun an apprehensive glance. They watched Ahmed and Cagalli talk, Ahmed seeming to be fairly forward, but still blushing and Cagalli nodding. When suddenly... they heard those dreaded words spring forth from Ahmed's mouth.:

"Hey Cagalli... I hope you don't hate me now... that you still like mea little..." He tried to smile at her. Cagalli answered him with a glare.

"LIKE YOU! After what you pulled, I don't want to be within a 10 foot radius of you!"

He laughed. "Well that's going to make dating a bit hard..."

Cagalli blinked. "Huh?"

Ahmed mustered up a silly grin. "So... you wanna go out this weekend?"

* * *

**So the bet has concluded ladies and gentlemen, and it's a tie! But, uh oh… Kira and Lacus' plan has backfired! What will happen! Will Cagalli break her dare, or accept Ahmeh's date? Andwhat about poor Athrun!**

**No hints about the next chapter this time… like I said the next one is the chapter that was intended to be the true ending. A brief epilogue will be posted though, so I can get a nice even number for my first fanfic. **-

**Once again, many thanks to my much loved reviewers:**

**Taminemoon, Taraneh, kaurama-kasuki, MyouseiSeed, daisukechibi, animemistress419, Digital-Dragon-Master, kura52, anon, transmobilesuit , stuntsheep, FormerAurora, Susan, xXDarkgrlXx, clumsy kelli, IYGU, ANONYMOUS, RoGuE-WhItE-DrAgOn, Crazy Destiny, Kandida, gseedlover, koali alolao, Cagalli Yula aTHHA, Smoke-Angel, MissKT, thunder sister, Ivory Nightshade, Michoyo Hikari, BlackCrya, peachy, Yukari-chan, asga, ninofchaos **

**Thank you all for you continued support. It's good to see that people are actually reading this fic and thinking about it. I certainly didn't expect anyone to remember all the rules (I don't really myself… sshhhh), but the ones that you did need to remember I reiterated. **

**As a final end note: I've started making an outline for my next fic, so here's a brief teaser. **

**Title: Waiting On You**

**Preview: **

**Athrun thought he was just having an ordinary day, about to drink an ordinary coffee at what appeared to be an ordinary café. Too bad his waitress wasn't so ordinary… Athrun&Cagalli centric. **

**_"Okay. How's it going?" she asked conversationally._**

_**"Hm? Uh... okay." **_

_**"Well that sucks." **_

_**"How so?"**_

_**"Because why would you put up with an okay day when you could be having a great one?"**_

**No idea when this thing is coming… but you get the idea. I hope you guys will go check it out though. **

**Until next week,goodbye!**


	11. Final Findings

**Wow this week really did go by fast for me. Before I knew it, it was time for the final update. Agh, I'm going to miss updating this thing. I know I said I'd make an epilogue, but it's just not the same. And just for the record, yes a tiny part of this chapter is from the first chapter, as I really don't expect you guys to remember it but it is important nonetheless**.

**So here it is guys, the final ending to Blush and Smile.**

_

* * *

_

_"So... you wanna go out this weekend?..."_

Cagalli could swear that out of the corner of her eye she could see Kira's head make contact with his desk and Lacus cover her eyes. Quickly, she turned back to face Ahmed.

"M-Me? Really?" She stammered. Ahmed nodded. "Well I dunno... I never, I mean…" She found herself, strangely enough, suddenly thinking about Athrun. "_But Athrun wasn't... Agh forget this! Just… refuse? But he's not a bad guy… Ahmed."_ And the dare… she couldn't just back out. It's a dare…

_"No… No, I'm not backing down." _

_

* * *

_

Athrun's head suddenly shot up as he stared at Cagalli. Did she just say yes? To him?! He suddenly became angry, then caught himself._ "What am I thinking? It's not like she's my... Aw hell I had my chance… If I can't even work up the guts to ask, maybe I really just don't deserve…"_ His thoughts were interrupted when Cagalli walked over to her seat beside him and sat down.

"Well yeah. He asked me to go out with him. On Saturday. So I said yes of course. But can you imagine? I had no idea he even liked me..." Cagalli seemed to keep talking. Lacus was looking at her and nodding, and though Athrun was looking at her as well, he couldn't seem to hear anything except the sound of his own heartbeat echoing in his ears.

_"I'm being stupid. And unreasonable. She's not... We're not..." _He sighed to himself. But she looked happy… right? So as long as she didn't mind… well as much as it pained him…

"_I'll live with it"._

* * *

The remainder of the week was surprisingly un-awkward. No one spoke of what was coming, no one paid attention to it. The only difference was that sometimes Ahmed would drop over and talk to Cagalli, and everyone else would fall silent. Kira would wring his hands and Lacus simply stood there. In all truth, it was a normal week, aside from those spontaneous moments… then come Saturday morning…

* * *

_"Hey! Where are we going?" She cried in a sudden outburst. He calmly pushed open a door and walked over to a secretary, asking for something. Moments later, the blushing secretary handed him a brochure of some sort. Walking back out, he handed it to Cagalli. Looking down, she read the words "Map of West Campus" Cagalli was caught between anger and embarrassment when his voice interrupted her thoughts. _

_"Because I might not always be around when you get lost." He smirked. Blushing furiously, she turned away._

* * *

Athrun awoke with a start, trying to shake the dream he had just had out of his head. Kira and slept over at Lacus' house, again, and so thankfully he had the dorm to himself for a while. He sighed, recalling the first time he'd met Cagalli. He remembered standing there for a while, just watching her, until he finally approached her. He remembered teasing her, and how entertaining it was. 

And he remembered her blush…

Casting a glance at the phone perched on his beside table, he reached over and dialed the number he was most familiar with. He waited… one.. two rings. She never answered before two rings… because that way the person would be sure they didn't have the wrong number.

And she was also just lazy anyways.

"Hello?"

Athrun smiled. He thought it would be strange, he was afraid he might freeze up. And he did, maybe a little. But really, he felt comfortable. Just the sound of her voice was able to make him feel at ease.

"Hey, Cagalli? It's me, um, those notes I lent you from a week ago. I kinda need them back, so would you mind if I swung by to pick them up? Maybe, this afternoon?"

"No problem. Just call before you get here."

"All right I'll leave in a few hoursthen." Athrun said, rising out of bed to get dressed. He stopped for some breakfast, read the paper... and in the the midst of this regular routine of his…

He forgot what day it was.

* * *

His mind was completely blank as he drove down the well known roads and arrived at her apartment. She'd left the door unlocked, so after knocking three times softly he entered. 

"Cagalli? I'm here." He said, picking up the notes from the coffee table.

"Hey Athrun. Could you do me a favor?" She asked, walking in with a quick pace. "I can't get this zipper all the way up..."

Athrun almost dropped the papers as she walked in. Even though they had grown to be more or less best friends, moments like this were still awkward... As in moments where she wasn't FULLY dressed. And on top of that, for god's sake she was wearing a dress… Since when did she wear those? Okay, so technically, he should feel somewhat comfortable with this by now… uh… riiiiight. Who am I kidding? He wanted to hide in a hole from embarrassment.

"Athrun?" Her voice pulled him out of his thoughts.

"Yeah, uh, sure" He mumbled, putting the papers down. She turned around so her back was facing him, as he slowly began to pull the zipper up. Gradually, they both became increasingly aware of how close they were, and suddenly what he was doing didn't feel so casual, even to her.

His face had been about as red as a broiled lobster from the beginning, but when she began to feel as hot as one… okay time to back away. She'd grown so close to him that she'd almost forgotten that he was still a guy, and that every now and then she still felt something about him… "_Gah what am I thinking!"_ Stepping back quickly after he'd finished, she mumbled a thanks and retreated back to her room quickly, still feeling his gaze on her.

Athrun was completely speechless. Out of extreme embarrassment over what he'd just done and also out of how he couldn't seem to stop staring at her, and how she looked. Frowning, he sat down on the couch.

"It's for your date right?"

"Mmhmm." She replied.

"Ha… I'd almost forgotten. Can you imagine?..." He nodded slowly and made his way to the door. Placing his hand of the doorknob, he took a deep breath. "Well, have fun. I'll be going now."

"All right. I'll see you later then." She replied, not even coming to the door to say goodbye. She just couldn't face him. Listening to the door close, Cagalli stopped suddenly and leaned forward on her dresser. Looking in the mirror, she studied her face then frowned and averted her gaze down to her hands.

That day they'd met... when she was sitting on that bench and chucking maps at trash cans. He'd helped her find her class, and at the same time... She found him. "Athrun..." She murmured in a breath.

* * *

Outside of her door, he looked at the notes for a while, with his right hand still on the doorknob. Tilting his head back against the door and closing his eyes he sighed. 

"Cagalli..."

He began to walk down the steps of her apartment, when he suddenly ran into Ahmed.

"Oh, hey. What are you doing here?" Ahmed asked curiously.

"Just picking up some notes. Have fun." Athrun said weakly, waving the notes in his hand.

"Yeah, thanks man. She's some girl though, ain't she?" Ahmed grinned. Athrun nodded and headed towards his car and waited until Ahmed was clearly out of earshot. Resisting the urge to barge back upstairs, he started the car.

"Yeah... She's some girl."

* * *

Cagalli sat at dinner, listening to Ahmed talk about...something. Okay, so she wasn't really listening, much less conversing. And she barely had any idea what this guy WAS talking about. In any case, every time she thought of something to say, it involved Athrun in some way, and despite her lack of dating experience, she knew that talking about another guy on a first date wasn't a great thing to do. 

Yet it was hard because Athrun really WAS all that she seemed capable of thinking about. Ahmed was a nice guy, really not bad at all. But what had happened with Athrun today, well not really happened, but what she had felt. And how he had reacted. There was just something... Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of, a cell phone? She watched Ahmed reach into his pocket.

"Hey, this is Ahmed. Yeah...Yeah...Mmhmm... yeah, WHAT! When? You're kidding... WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT WON'T PRINT! THEY WON'T TAKE IT? Now! But!.. Can't you wait? I'm in the middle of… Oh all right. Fine... Sure... Yeah, bye. Hey Cagalli..." He frowned, after hanging up promptly and calling the waiter over for the check.

"It's fine." She smiled. "Whatever it is, it's fine. I'm feeling pretty off tonight anyways, so just go."

Ahmed blinked. "That's got to be the coolest thing a girl's ever said to me." He laughed, shaking his head lightly in disbelief. "All right, well, do you need a ride home?" He grinned, rising from his chair and extending his hand to hers to help her up. Cagalli shook her head.

"I'll walk. I could use the air."

Ahmed gave her one last look. "Have a good night then." He nodded. "Again, I'm really sorry about this…"

Cagalli nodded with understanding. "I know. You better get going."

And with that, her date was over.

* * *

Cagalli had been walking for... an obscene amount of time. Though she'd offered to walk herself home, it wasn't until Ahmed was long gone that she realized she had no idea HOW to.. and even after figuring it out, it was still a monstrously long walk. After about an hour of two of getting lost, figuring out where she was, then continuing her arduous journey, she found herself walking past the university. _"Hmm didn't realize this was on the way..."_ She thought to herself, when suddenly she spotted a familiar silhouette walking towards her. Her eyes widened. 

"Well hello there Cagalli. Lost?" Athrun blinked, then couldn't help but grin. Cagalli smiled lightly.

"Maybe a little. Yeah. My date got cut short. Ahmed had to go deal with something."

"And he made you walk home?" He frowned.

"Eh? No I wanted to myself. He offered me a ride." She explained. He looked at her and nodded. "What are you...?" She began to ask.

"Doing here? Heh, more papers." He smiled, waving his right hand. She smiled at him. "Well then, let's walk." He said, taking a step towards her.

He considered just asking her out now… her date WAS over. And now she wouldn't feel FORCED to accept his offer… and he only had a few hours before the dare's time limit expired. Engulfed in his thoughts, he kept his pace, until he felt her falling behind.

"Cagalli?" He raised an eyebrow.

"Just, hold on. You walk too fast." she explained, holding onto a tree while checking her shoe.

"Wow, you're out of shape." He teased.

"No... I'm wearing heels!" She responded angrily, throwing one at him. He caught it and handed it to her.

"I could just slow my pace you know." He offered, but she responded with a glare.

"Don't act like you have to lower yourself to be at par with me." She glared. Athrun chuckled and backed away.

"All right." He shrugged. She put her shoe back on and began to walk again.

"Dammit. I'd just take off these damn shoes if the street weren't so dirty..." She mumbled to herself. Athrun closed his eyes and smiled as the two of them walked down the street together. Suddenly, Athrun sensed that she was missing from his right side, and looked back. A wad of gum of the street had apparently gotten Cagalli glued to the street via her right heel.

"Aw, gross. Get off." She frowned, tugging her leg.

"Hey, Cagalli, don't do that. You might-" His warning was interrupted as he watched her lose her balance and fall. Athrun winced and hurried over. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah I think so." She stood up and tried to walk, but Athrun noticed a scrape on her leg. He sighed and knelt down with his back facing her. "What are you doing Athrun? I'm not getting on your back. It's just a scrape."

Athrun laughed softly. "Yeah but you keep trying to walk in those heels, by the time we get you home you'll be covered in scrapes." Cagalli frowned.

"That's not true. I'm not that clumsy! Besides..." Cagalli trailed off.

"Hmm? What's wrong? Come on, not like I've never carried you before." He said.

"Yeah, but I wasn't... wearing a dress those times." She noted. Athrun looked at her, realizing that she was wearing a dress that went just down to her knees. He blushed and turned away.

"Oh geez. Well then, we call a cab." He offered.

"This late?"

"I suppose you have a better idea?"

"Doesn't matter. There are no cabs this late at night." She sighed. Athrun seemed to be deep in thought, trying to figure out a way to get Cagalli home in one piece. Suddenly, he bent down and took off his shoes.

"We're not the same size, but it's better then nothing." He shrugged handing then to her. "And I've got socks on so I can walk without shoes"

Cagalli stared at him. "Athrun... This is the more bizarre idea anyone has ever come up with."

"But, it will work." He grinned. "Unless you WANT me to carry you, by slinging you over my shoulder or something to that extent." He joked. Cagalli however, had started blushing immediately. Grabbing his shoes, she stormed past him walking while trying to put them on. He watched her hop on one foot, as she straightened out the heel on the left shoe. Chuckling, he followed.

* * *

About half an hourlater, they in front of Cagalli's apartment door, facing each other. Athrun had STILL not done the dare... but just… couldn't bring himself to. Because as much as he wanted to, they were having such a great time. He wouldn't ruin this feeling for the world... much less a dare. 

"Well then, I'll see you later Cagalli." Athrun smiled, as he turned and began walking down the hallway.

"Uh, Athrun!" Cagalli suddenly cried out.

"Hmm?" Athrun turned.

"Do you want to eat something?" She asked. He shook his head and continued walking.

"Because it's kind of late, and you shouldn't walk home now. You could just stay the night." She offered in a low whisper, that was barely audible. But audible enough so that he heard.

_"That's another first..."_ He stopped in his tracks and turned to face her again. "Cagalli, you have a one bedroom apartment."

"I know."

"So then..." He blushed.

"No no! There's the couch..." She blushed

"But it would still be sort of weird..." He blushed harder.

"I know, but I really don't want you walking home this late!" She blushed even more.

Athrun began to walk toward her. "Cagalli..." He spoke softly.

"I don't even know what's wrong with me. There I was today, sitting there, with Ahmed, and there's nothing really wrong with him. But I can't seem to hear a word of what he's saying." She stammered.

"Cagalli..."

"I mean, honestly I was just being unreasonable. I just couldn't seem to pay attention to him. And I feel bad about that I guess, but..."

"Cagalli... What were you thinking about?"

"I was thinking about A-..." She stopped and drew a breath. looking up, she found Athrun standing a foot away from her. She blushed and turned away. She stayed silent, barely able to believe that she had just actually said that. To him. _"I can't talk... what'll he say? Oh geez, I don't even know how I feel anymore. But I was thinking about him. I was thinking about Athrun…"_

She stopped and slowly turned towards him, waiting for him to say something. Did this mean she... But how was that possible when...For how long had she... Her mind kept starting questions then trailing off as she looked at him. Suddenly his face changed from serious to mildly confused.

"A-hmed?" He raised an eyebrow. "I thought you were with him."

"No!" She blurted out. She felt the blush cooling down as she began laughing. Unlocking the door to her apartment she opened it, still laughing as Athrun followed her inside.

"No... not Ahmed, idiot." She smiled, laughing. Athrun had an amused smile on his face as watched her. Cagalli turned towards him, and caught him grinning. She glared at him. "Quit smiling so darn much. You make me feel like a circus show or something..."

His smile grew even larger, as he took his hands out of his pockets and hugged her. Cagalli was caught off guard and stumbled backwards.

"But you're the only one that can make me smile this much." He sighed. Cagalli felt that damn blush returning to her face.

"And you're the only one that can make me blush this much." She complained, rubbing her cheek against his shoulder as it trying to get it off. Athrun only started laughing.

"I don't think that's helping." He let go of her and took a step back, studying her face a little.

"Mmm, well make yourself at home. Err, hold on." She said, making her way to her room. Athrun followed curiously. Cagalli stopped and shot him a glare. "I said you were sleeping on the couch."

"Huh? Oh, no I was just..." He looked down at the carpet to hide the blush. Apparently it had rubbed off on him.

"Well I'm not going to bed yet, so you can hang out in my room for a while I guess." She shrugged. Athrun followed her in and waited for the blush to subside. Then after a few minutes he began to look around.

"First time I've really looked around this place..." He mumbled. Suddenly, something caught his eye. "You still have this?" He smiled, holding it up. Cagalli looked over at see what it was.

"The map? Oh yeah, you gave it to me when we first met, remember?" Suddenly, she froze and made a grab at it. Athrun, though surprised managed to keep his hold on it.

"Eh? What's so great about an old map?" He wondered aloud.

"Athrun, no! I... just give it back!" She lunged after it again, but he dodged. After chasing him for 10 minutes, Athrun managed to stall for enough time to open the map. Cagalli froze and quickly looked away. Athrun stared.

Apparently, at some point she had taken the time to mark down precisely where they had met, by circling it and writing the date. Then she simply marked places they frequently spent time together. In the margins there were notes like _"Here I discovered he was ticklish." _Or _"He likes the view of the park from here."_

Athrun looked at her and closed the map. "I... I'm sorry, that… I shouldn't have looked." He stumbled on his words.

"It's my fault. I don't know what I kept that thing...not like I need it anymore." She whispered. He started to hand it back to her, but when she reached out her hand, he dropped the map and pulled her towards him. "A-Athrun?..." She seemed to be surprised.

"Cagalli, tell me what this means. Because so many times, and just outside, I kind of need to know what all this means." He spoke calmly. "So, just tell me, because we've never had a problem just talking before. What's going on?"

"You tell me." She replied, with equal calm.

"I think, that I already know how I feel... But what about you?"

Cagalli drew a breath and tried to prepare herself. She thought about it for a long time, considered his words as he simply held her there. Slowly she raised her arms until she had wrapped them around him. Then she rested her head on his shoulder and tried to talk.

"Athrun... I don't know. When I first met you, I had no idea what was going on. Then after a while, I guess I got used to you, and so it wasn't really awkward. I don't really feel awkward with you at all anymore. But at the same time, I wonder if I should. And I ask myself what's going on in my head, because I have no clue. Does someone just randomly think of a friend? Or does that mean something else?"

She sighed, relieved to be able to finally let her thoughts flow out of her mouth. Athrun didn't move but merely stood there and listened, still holding onto her and supporting her while she spoke. There was a long pause, and Cagalli composed her thoughts.

"I really have no clue. I don't know myself at all, much less what I'm thinking, or feeling, or why. But what I do know is that you know me better then I know myself. So maybe, you should just ask yourself, and you'll figure it out..." She explained.

These were the truest words she could ever say: Because somewhere along the line, they had stopped using words to communicate. An unspoken understanding had developed, and whenever she felt lost…

She started breathing normally as she waited for an answer. Finally, she slightly relaxed into him. He tensed at this sudden gesture. She stepped back and looked at him, waiting.

Athrun was confused. He had wanted to ask her what she was feeling, to see if he could understand himself. But her answer. What did it mean? What did he think, she thought? He had no idea either! But something told him that he could get his questions answered, if he just... Leaned forward?

Cagalli was startled. Athrun was approaching her? But he was still looking at her, eyes fully open. What was he thinking? She felt herself lean forward and close her eyes.

And suddenly…Their faces met midway, and they poured out the emotions that had been building from the moment they had met. He held her in place gently, she moved forward into him. They spoke, felt, breathed into each other. It's true: Friends were friends… and they were definitely friends. But somewhere along the line, though they had never realized it… It had become more then that.

Pulling away, they studied each other. Athrun had closed his eyes after he saw her start to. Now opening them, he noticed a slight blush on her. And she was smiling. He smiled back at her, content with her response. _"So I guess that means..."_

Cagalli could only look at him and lightly blush, as her eyes traced his face. He was grinning, that was a good sign. But did he figure it out? That felt... not magical. Not like she was going to explode. That didn't feel lustful either. But she was still smiling, and just looking at him. I guess it felt sort of, comfortable. _"So then..."_

"Cagalli?... You don't need that map." He spoke gently, and looked straight into her eyes. She tilted her head in mild confusion. He smiled and continued. "Because I take back what I said, that first daywhen I found you. I will always be around for you, whether you're lost or not."

* * *

**Hellooooooooo Readers! Corniest ending ever huh? But I just couldn't resist! Well this is it. My first fanfic is brought to an close. For those of you that wanted MORE physical contact, well it's not like they've done any more then that in the show, so I'm not making them do more either.**

**The reason the ending seemed to tie in so much with the first chapter… again, this ending was written at the same time as the first chapter. I just basically revisited this, and changed a few things that were different, and did some final editing. **

**So what can you expect in the Epilogue? Basically I'm just going to use it as a final thread to tie up all the loose ends. Look for stuff that was missing in this chapter, which includes Kira and Lacus, whatever happened to Ahmed etc. **

**The usual thank you to all my wonderful reviewers who have been SO supportive of me.**

**Michiyo Hikari, asga, kura52, jenniferseedlover, thunder sister, BlackCyra, ninofchaos, MyouseiSeed, RoGuE-WhItE-DrAgOn, Crazy-Destiny, animemistress419, gseedlover, Digital-Dragon-Master, koali alolao, Ivory Nightshade, Alexa, KiraFreedom, Fan fiction collector, clumsy kelli, stuntsheep, laku, Susan, Shuichi66, ANONYMOUS, Angry Bird, kaurama-kasuki, DeepToot, Ayome, daisukechibi, Cagalli Zala, animelova, terrychen305, Kiyoko-San**

**Any last trailing thoughts, questions, comments etc. will have to be made NOW, as this will the be that chance you guys have to ask them and expect a response. I'll reply to them in the epilogue and that'll be it. As for you readers who haven't been reviewing, I'd still like to hear from you so please review, at least for the final chapter. **

**Thank you all for being such a fantastic audience! **

**-Periodic-prose.**


	12. Epilogue

**Here is it guys, the final chapter of Blush and Smile. I'll get on with it for now and start babbling more at the end. (For anyone that reviewed the last chapter, I have literally written out responses to every review, so make sure you check that out.)**

* * *

**Love and Life**

Sunlight had just barely begun seeping into the room, and slowly began stirring a certain sleeping lump on the couch. A blue-haired lump, covered by a messy heap of blanket. As the light gently tickled his eyelids, coaxing them to open, the poor mass' restful sleep was more abruptly disturbed by the sound of the phone ringing.

Athrun groggily stuck out an arm and blindly felt around. Odd... the phone wasn't where it usually was... Reluctantly opening a lazy eye, he peered around. Odd... this wasn't his house. And this wasn't his bed. What the-?

And gradually he remembered what had happened last night. How he had confessed to Cagalli, an hshe in turn had confessed to him. So now they were… basically, kind of… um a uh… ah screw it they were a couple. Smiling gently, he lifted his head to peer around, and located the phone. Slowly picking it up, to stop the incessant ringing, he held the receiver to his ear.

"Hel-."

"CAGALLI! ATHRUN'S GONE! GONE! I CAME BACK TO THE DORM TODAY AND I CAN'T FIND HIM ANYWHERE! HE'S JUST DISAPPEARED!" A voice shrieked frantically. Athrun chuckled. Kira... oh yes. They didn't know... come to think of it, no one did.

Suddenly, a softer, much more careful voice came through. "Cagalli, it's me Lacus. We're concerned about Athrun because... well you see he wasn't feeling very happy about you dating Ahmed. And so we're thinking he might have done something rash. If you hear from him..."

"Oh I've heard from him." Athrun interrupted, unable to contain his amusement any longer.

An empty silence followed.

"Now why were you about to pour out MY feelings out to Cagalli if you thought she didn't know?" Athrun frowned, but also half-teased.

"A-Ath...run?" Lacus spoke testily, clearly in disbelief.

"ATHRUN!" Kira voice erupted from behind Lacus' and there was a sudden change in tone.

"ATHRUN! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING IN MY SISTER'S APARTMENT THIS EARLY!"

**

* * *

**

And that was how the day began, the morning after Athrun and Cagalli has cemented their feelings. A confused Lacus, an amused Athrun, a sleepy Cagalli who had been forcibly dragged out of bed, and an eruptive Kira who was in hyper-active overprotective brother mode. Of course, after Cagalli picked up the phone and said, "What's the big deal guys?... I was still sleeping..."

Kira proceeded to shout about why Athrun was in her apartment when she was sleeping. Then charged over, splintered another door, and was restrained so that in the words of Lacus "they could have a nice talk". After all, it had been Kira's partial doing, so he didn't have a right to complain. Lacus couldn't be happier. Cagalli was still only half-conscious, periodically slumping onto Athrun's shoulder and falling asleep, leaving a flustered Athrun to explain what had happened.

And as expected, after it was explained that Athrun slept on the COUCH, and that no bases had been touched (_okay maybe first but that's just kissing, and it's not like they needed to know that_)... and Cagalli gained full conciousness, they went out for breakfast, where Kira and Lacus broke the big news about them moving in together.

Fast forward two weeks of classes and we arrive on a sunny weekend: A

Saturday, where Athrun himself had to climb into Cagalli's bed to wake her up. Then, the four of them met at Athrun and Kira's dorm and gradually began loading Kira's smaller belongings onto their cars. Stumbling around with a large cardboard box, and just barely able to see over it, Cagalli carefully made her way over to Kira's car.

"I'll take that." A calm voice spoke, as two hands came out of nowhere and whisked the bulky package away. Cagalli's eyes narrowed and she stormed after Athrun.

"Hey! That's MY box!" She protested. "Who gave you permission to take it!"

"The fact that you were about to walk into a telephone pole because you didn't know where you were going?" Athrun laughed. "Though it would have been funny, what kind of a boyfriend would I be to just sit and watch it happen?

Cagalli blinked, clearly not aware of this knowledge. "I knew that..." She muttered, stubbornly hiding a blush. "Now give me back the box!" She finished, desperate to change the subject, taking another lunge at it. Athrun laughed, and let her chase him around for a while.

"Hey!" Kira called. Both people running stopped and turned to face him. "As entertaining as it is to watch you lovebirds play tag, that box has MY stereo in it, so fork it over." He grinned, strolling over and taking up the box, then dumping it into his car. Lacus laughed, then walked inside to get more stuff. Cagalli blushed at the word "lovebirds". Athrun blushed, then turned to Cagalli and shrugged slightly.

"Athrun, could you give me a hand with one of the larger crates?" Kira asked, gesturing towards the door. Athrun nodded and followed him outside, leaving Cagalli to sit and watch the stuff in the car. She frowned with boredom and started scanning the packages in the car.

Familiar stuff, that brought back memories. Random toys from when they were little, a teddy bear with a bandaged arm from when they had argued over who owned it. A broken model plane that they had flown into a tree. Ahh, good times.

Suddenly something caught her eye... It was her. HER CD! He said that he'd returned it! Liar! She began climbing over the hill of random boxes and digging her way through one to get to it.

"I've been looking for that thing for ages!" She frowned, beginning to think of ways to torture him when he got back, when she heard a voice speak up.

"You know it's not nice to look through other people's stuff."

Cagalli went stiff. Realizing how suspicious she must look, she turned to face a man, who with his hands in his pockets, was staring at her with raised eyebrows.

"AHMED! Ah... well... this is. It's not what it looks like!" She stammered.

"Really? Because it looks like you're going through some random guy's stuff to me." He grinned.

"He's not random! It's mine... uh, okay not really mine. It's my brother's, and some of this stuff is mine!" She tried to explain. Ahmed raised his eyebrows again.

"Ooookay. Anyway, I was just walking by and saw you and though I'd um, I dunno just say, sorry again about that Saturday. But uh, I was hoping that I could make it up to you. How about... Next week?"

Cagalli stared. Did he not know? Then again, well she hadn't talked to him since that their date: But she thought he would have heard by word of mouth at least.

"Uh... well. That's um, very nice of you to offer. But I already said that it was okay." She explained, not sure how to break it to him, and hoping that would work.

"No no, really! it's fine! Let me make it up to you!" He insisted...

_Damn_.

* * *

"Okay Athrun, umm watch your step there. Yeah, we're almost there. One more step..." Kira guided as Athrun tried to feel around for the next step with his foot. He was walking backwards down a flight of stairs, while Kira had the other end. 

"Okay now um... holy crap." Kira froze, staring out of the open door at Ahmed talking to Cagalli. From the looks of it, something was happening. "Uh... on second though Athrun, I don't think this thing'll fit through the door! Let's carry it back up and then you wait upstairs while I um... take some measurements."

Athrun looked up and him and glared fiercely. "Kira I swear I think I have a hernia and may very well have ruptured a kidney from crashing into walls, corners and random houseplants, while carrying this thing. AND NOW YOU WANT TO GO BACK UPSTAIRS? HAVE YOU GONE MAD!"

"Well it just won't fit!" Kira insisted, eyes growing wider by the minute as he watched Ahmed talk to Cagalli casually, and show no sign of leaving. Meanwhile, Athrun was still sending him death via eye contact. "Seriously Athrun! It won't fit! See for yourself!"

Kira froze and swallowed hard, instantly regretting his last three words. Everything slowed down as he watched Athrun slowly turn his head to look at the open door, and find Cagalli chatting it up with a well dressed Ahmed.

Athrun's face fell slightly, as he gaped in shock, then dropped his end of the package. Kira's knees buckled at the sudden weight and he too let go, kneeling behind the box for protection. Lacus hopped down the stairs at this exact moment.

"Hey Kira, so you want to take this too because I already have...one..." She trailed off as her mouth opened and ceased to make sound. Meanwhile, Athrun was still staring, completely speechless. He didn't know whether to walk over or not. He took a tentative step towards then, then stopped, unsure of what to do.

* * *

Cagalli was having a hard time fielding off Ahmed's persistency without being too blunt. Desperately, she looked around for some distraction, and she found one. 

"Athrun!" She blurted out, not thinking about the consequences of what she had just said. Great, instead of just explaining that she had a boyfriend now, she was going to drag said boyfriend over. Just brilliant.

As her mind shot her remarks, just dripping with sarcasm, she studied Athrun, who seemed in shock that she had noticed him. He seemed to think he was invisible or something, because he first resumed blinking, then looked around him as if there was another Athrun she could possibly be calling out to. Frustrated, Cagalli cupped her hand around her mouth.

"AAAAAAAAATTTHRUUUUUUUNNN!" She hollered. Athrun jumped and sprinted over. Ahmed...had no idea what was going on.

"Hey, what's up?" Athrun asked automatically, in a tone much more casual then how he felt.

"This is Ahmed. You guys know each other right?" Cagalli smiled nervously.

"Yeah." Ahmed removing his right hand from his pocket and extended it. "Course. Never really talked to you before, but who hasn't heard of you right?"

Athrun grinned. "Same to you." He responded, accepting Ahmed's hand and giving it a firm shake.

"Athrun is my uh... my..." Cagalli stammered.

Ahmed blinked. "Friend?"

"No actually..." Athrun interrupted, sliding an arm around Cagalli's shaking shoulders and tilting his head against hers. "We're dating."

"Oh... oh I see." Ahmed's face dawned with understanding. He then broke into a grin. "Guess I was just too late huh?"

Cagalli looked up and nodded with a blush. "Sorry..."

"No no." Ahmed protested. "We shouldn't regret how we feel. And we should never be sorry about following through with those feelings."

"What a poet." Athrun joked. Ahmed turned to him and shrugged light-heartedly.

"I try. I'll see you guys around." Ahmed grinned, then turned and left with a quick wave.

Athrun waited until Ahmed was out of view, then wrapped his other arm around Cagalli and have her a quick hug. "Now was that so hard?"

Cagalli blushed. "First time I've let down a guy like that before..."

"What on earth are you talking about?" Lacus laughed, strolling over with Kira who had deemed it safe to leave the safety of the box. "You've let down plenty of guys."

Athrun blinked. He removed his arms from Cagalli, crossed them and looked at her quizzically.

"Oh really?"

Cagalli frowned. "Lacus, what are you talking about?"

"What happened to Max?" Kira grinned.

"Athrun punched him out." Cagalli shrugged. Athrun looked away innocently and whistled. Lacus and Kira stared.

"Ooo... so THAT'S what happened." Lacus nodded thoughtfully. "Oh what about that guy that was hitting on you when we went to that bakery?"

"When was this?" Athrun turned sharply. Kira frowned, with and expression that also demanded an explanation. Cagalli rolled her eyes.

"Lacus...that guy was a total creep."

"So? You still let him down." she noted.

"LACUS! The man's pickup line was 'My pants are uncomfortable, but my bed is!" Cagalli shouted incredulously. Athrun's eyes narrowed. Kira raised an eyebrow.

"Then you proceeded to tell him that that was the worst excuse for sex you'd ever heard and beat him with your bag. But it was a let down, nonetheless." Lacus insisted. Cagalli sighed, resigning to defeat and turned to face a glowering Athrun.

"And this guy's name was?" He frowned. Cagalli stared at him and...burst out laughing. Athrun blinked. That was unexpected. "What?" He demanded.

"I... I don't know." Cagalli laughed. "It's just that..."

"She never realized how cute you are when you're jealous." Lacus finished for her. Cagalli choked up, blushing ALMOST as much as the siren red Athrun.

"Okay guys, let's get going. I'll take Lacus in my car with me, and Cagalli can ride with Athrun." Kira proposed, clapping his hands together and opening the door for Lacus. Lacus smiled taking his hand and gracefully hopping into his car. Kira walked over to the other side, got in, and gave her a quick kiss before starting the car and driving off.

Athrun and Cagalli waited until Kira and Lacus had driven out of view before they boarded Athrun's car. Once more, Cagalli leaned her elbow against the door frame and looked out the window. Athrun turned to her at a red light, taking his right hand off the wheel and gently placing it on hers. Cagalli turned to him and smiled.

"It's been a while."

"Hm?"

"Since we met. It's been a while."

"Not really." Athrun shrugged, as he hit the accelerator. "Only... what? Less then a year."

Cagalli pondered for a moment. "Wow, you're right. It feels like ages already though… Hope I'm not boring you yet." She grinned.

"Never." He replied curtly, not even taking his eyes off the road.

"Hey Athrun?"

"Hm?"

Cagalli paused, unsure of that she wanted to say. Really, she had nothing to say. She just wanted to talk to him, and hear his voice. Taking a breath, she said the first thing that came to mind.

"Kira and Lacus are cute together though, huh?"

"Mmhmm." Athrun murmured in agreement.

"How do you think we look?" She asked without thinking about it. Athrun stopped at another red light.

"What?" He turned to her. "How do we look?"

"When we look at Kira and Lacus we think, cute. What about when people look at us?" Cagalli explained.

Athrun shrugged. "I don't know. Don't really care either..."

Cagalli frowned. "You must think something."

Slowly, he took both of her hands in his and stared right into her. "Really... I think when people look at us, they see two people. That's all we are to them. What we have, it's probably hard for them to see. But I can still feel it. So even if they can't see it, it's still there."

Cagalli blushed and nodded. "O-okay." She smiled, turning to the window again. Athrun smiled, and turned to face the road again, as the light turned green, still holding Cagalli's right hand in his.

"What about Kira and Lacus moving in together?"

"What about it?"

"Think we'll ever do that?"

"Sure." Athrun nodded with a shrug. "Maybe not now. But eventually. I mean, we have our whole lives to do whatever you want to do."

"Okay...Hey Athrun?"

"Hm?"

Cagalli turned to him and smiled happily, yet softly. "I'm glad I'll get to live through life with you."

"Couldn't imagine doing it with anyone else." He smiled a bit, giving her hand a squeeze.

"You know what else I'm glad about?"

"What?"

Cagalli paused for a moment, uncertain of whether or not to say what her mind was screaming. Finally, she gave in. "I'm glad I found you."

He looked at her, with those trademark gorgeous eyes and melted into a smile. "Me too."

And they drove on...

* * *

**Well there you go guys. With this epilogue, Blush and Smile is officially over. First of all, I have to give huge walloping thanks to all my readers and reviewers who have so kindly supported this fic. I'd like to give special thanks to those who have been reading this thing from the very first chapter and followed this story to the end. I'm really very touched that anyone would like anything I've written that much. **

**Now, just a quick note, as to how I decided the name for this thing. When I first wrote this, I had NO TITLE at all. Finally, I just slapped on Blush and Smile from their moments in the first few chapters and the last one. Then gradually the title began to have a bit more meaning and as of now, I couldn't be happier with it. If you look at all the defined Athrun&Cagalli moments in the series and kind of in this story too, what does it have? Cagalli blushing and Athrun smiling usually, or sometimes both smiling and of course, both blushing. So it just sort of ended up fitting and I'm actually really happy with it. **

**I might take a break off writing for a week or so, and then after that, my updates may need to slow down because of school starting. But I'll definitely upload the first chapter of my new fic before then, so I'll give you at least that much.**

**Thank you all so much for reading this fic. I'm very happy that you guys (hopefully) enjoyed it. You were such a great audience, and so really, I'm just ecstatic that this fic was so well received. **

**Very happily and sincerely,**

**Periodic-prose**

**

* * *

**

**Now here's the extra part, that I'm just tacking onto the end because, if you didn't review in the last chapter you probably won't be horribly interested in this. To show how grateful I am to all you reviewers of the last chapter (as I'm assuming you read the whole thing through) I'm going to respond to every review separately. So here we go:**

**WARNING: This thing is pretty long, so if you just want to find your name, in I****nternet Explorer (or Firefox for that matter) go the edit, then find, and type in your nickname. (Or just Ctrl+F)**

**Cagalli-san, Yay! Worried reviewers! I know that sounds evil, but I really do like to hane some suspense. I mean, if you just know for sure that they'll end up together, well then that's not much fun is it? Thank you for reviewing though!**

**eliteElite, Agh, I can't help but feel kind of down that you started this fic right as I finished it, but better late then never right? Thank you for reading this anyway. I'm glad you enjoyed it. **

**Cagalli Yula Athha Fangirl, Wow it wasn't corny? Thanks. Haha, I personally felt it was a tad, but as long as you're happy with it, that's great. You're very welcome, and thank you to you to for reading. **

**jenniferseedlover, You've been such a great, consistent reviewer. Lovely comments from you, always love to hear them. Thank you for always reviewing and sticking it through with his fic. **

**MyouseiSeed, One of the best fics you've ever read? What a compliment! Thank you very much for reviewing regularly with your kind words of encouragement! Much appreciated!**

**chidori-san, Light fluff, light fluff! Haha, well everyone loves a little. I just didn't want them attacking each other with raw passion. I'm happy to hear you enjoyed this, and thank you for being such a regular reviewer. **

**Eternally Asuka, You thought the ending was wonderful! Yay! I couldn't be happier! Thanks for your kind words. No need to say sorry at all. I'm just happy that you read. **

**KiraFreedom, Mm, well we can't always more for that perfect ending. It's what I had planned all along, so I hope it wasn't too bad. Hope you didn't mind it too much. **

**animemistress419, Yes, anticipation! Exactly what I was going for! I'm happy that I kept some of you guys on edge! I am planning on writing more so please check otu my next fic. Thank you for reviewing. **

**thunder sister, Corny! Corny! Yes! But I really had no idea how else to end this. I coudln't change the ending that I had written the entire story for, so I kept it and changed a few things. I hope it wasn't too bad though, and was just enough to give you a warm fuzzy feeling. Okay forget the fuzzy feeling, I just hope you liked it anyways. I'm happy that you reviewed for so long and grateful that you stuck with this story. Thanks!**

**Fantasticgirlz, One of the best you've read! That's quite a compliment there. Thank you very much! Always good to hear that. **

**Azalea, Yeah I'm pretty opposed to Athrun and Cagalli saying "I love you." It's never happened and as of now, I don't think it will. They just aren't the type of people to come out and say that, and well.. with my obsession of keeping them as canon as possible, it just wasn't going to happen. But I'm really thrilled hat you felt I kept these guys in character and even more thrilled that you've been reading this from the start! Thank you very much. **

**Ivory Nightshade, Haha, well it's done. I'm a bit sad that's it's over but also a bit relieved, because now, like you said, I can start on something else. Great to know that you likes this though. Thank you for reading this and reviewing so much. **

**Susan, Hmm well I certainly hope I didn't disappoint you with this ending. But Athrun and Cagalli are by nature, not blunt with romantic feelings. But the blushing is what makes them cute! Haha, well one of **

**Maedhros, Haha, well never lose hope. Anything can happen... just don't go getting lost on purpose looking for love. XP Joking Joking, I'm sure you wouldn't try that. Thank you very much for such a wonderful series of compliments. My habit of keeping things periodic helps with I'm planning stuff, but also can be a bit of a pain when I want to do something, but instead sit home and write, which though enjoyable, isn't my favorite past time. My inspiration was... hmmm tough question. Really just the desire for the four of them to be normal, so that we could see them act without the shadows of duty falling over them. I kind of mixed it in due to Athrun's character anyways, but for the most part, they started out as four average people. I can't thank you enough for reading this and sticking through with it though. It's great to know that I have such a supportive and thoughtful audience. **

**ANONYMOUS, Unfortunately, at this point I'm not planning a sequel, no. In the epilogue I tried to hint at how, Athrun and Cagalli have their whole lives left, and I honestly just can't think of enough stuff to fill their lives. So you have use your imagination and fill in those spots. The point is that this story could never really end, because there's no defined end point. This is their life, and their lives won't stop for a story. So I hope you'll understand if I don't have a sequel. Thank you so much for your great reviews though! Much appreciated. **

**clumsy kelli, I will be making a new fanfic soon, so I hope you check that out. Thank you for being such a consistently great reviewer. I'm pleased that you like the ending. **

**Digital-Dragon-Master, Haha well you were half right. Kira did start yelling but certainly not "It's about time!". But I'm happy that you think this ending was reasonable and not TOTALLY corny. I don't think it's the greatest ending ever, but it certainly was fitting. **

**khadz-animelover, I'm hoping to get the fic that I'm just barely started, up in a week or two. Not totally sure about that though. I'm happy you enjoyed this story. **

**The Angels' Princess, Hmm well I kind of hinted in the epilogue that eventually, yes Athrun and Cagalli will be moving in together. But they aren't going to now, because they just got together and both of them feel like that would be rushing it. But, thank you for your kind words and encouragement. I do plan to write more so I hope you check it out. **

**RoGuE-WhItE-DrAgOn, Well was there ever a doubt? If so, GOOD! I always knew that they were going to end up together, but knowing that isn't any fun. There's no suspense that way! So I tried my hardest to try to keep you guys on edge. Hope it worked! And thank you for being a faithful reviewer. **

**Cagalli Yula Athha, Haha, they feel what my weird idea of love is. It's what comes after the lust, passion, and awkwardness. A comfortable understanding that gives you more happiness than you could ever hope for, all from one person. **

**Dinkus, You weren't too specific about the "odd at the end" part, but I'll assume that it wasn't anything too bad. Heh, glad to hear you still enjoyed it though. **

**Crazy-Destiny, Haha, thank you. I'm glad that you're happy with the outcome. **

**BlackCyra, You've been such a fantastic giver of feedback. Haha, I'm happy to know that you seem pleased with this ending. **

**Smoke-Angel, I'm a huge fan of books or stories that all come together in the end, so I'm happy that you see this story as a full loop. Thank you very much for reviewing. **

**Amy, Well I'm happy it wasn't too sweet for you. Oh and if you read carefully, amoungst my vague description, I did make them kiss. XP Probably should have been more obvious about that. **

**daisukechibi, I'm very flattered that you would use your printer's precious ink just to have a copy of my drabbles. Haha, thank you for being such a great audience to my fic. **

**koali alolao, Haha, well corny and sweet can often overlap so I guess a bit of corny can do us all some good. My next fic is coming out soon to, so I hope you decide to check that out. **

**IYGU, Hmm I hope the epilogue was soon enough. I'm not usually a lucky person, so that wish is very much appreciated. Thanks for reviewing!**

**GATX-105B, well here's the epilogue, right on schedule. I hope you enjoyed it! Thank you for reviewing so much! **

**stuntsheep, Thank you for supporting my fic from the start. As usual, weekly update. Hope I didn't keep you in suspense or anything though!**

**asga, Haha, well here you go: Epilogue. I hope you enjoyed it and the story. Thank you for being such a consistent reviewer, from the beginning. **

**kura52, Thank you so much for your support throughout this story. Also, thank you for understanding why I didn't want to give them too much physical contact. It's just not in character for them, so a hug and a light kiss would have to do, since that's all they've done in the series too. **

**Kandida, Thanks a lot. The ending was always there, so it wasn't really about making it nice. It was about making a story to fit the ending. **

**mattthemoonprincess, Mm at this point I'm not planning to make a sequel. I actually wrote the last part of the epilogue to explain exactly why I don't plan to. It's because they really do have their whole lives ahead of them, and I couldn't possibly write about their whole lives. So I plan to leave it as is. **

**gseedlover, Thank you very much for reviewing this far. I'm glad that you enjoyed this fic, and liked the ending. **

**Michiyo Hikari, I'm glad to hear that you didn't think the ending was corny. It kinda though so myself, after going back and reading it, but at the same time I didn't want to change it, just because it's really fairly fitting. **

**Once more, thank you to you all!**


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